Caroline and Richard: Season Five, Part 1
by charming2492
Summary: Caroline remembers getting over Richard and falling for Randy, while Richard thinks about his transition into a father. But is it really the end for them?
1. Chapter 1: Caroline and the Wedding

The church was so deadeningly quiet that every shuffle, sneeze, and cough made Caroline jump. Her stomach was in knots, every fibre of her being buzzing: _Today's the day I get married. Finally. _It felt like every moment of her life had been leading up to this moment, and she was so ready. She stood before the Monsignor, in her dream white dress (it had been so natural when she had tried it on, she had known it was the one. It had been her mother's, and she had wanted a new one but somehow the traditional approach seemed more appropriate. The minute she put it on she had seen herself, at the alter, beside Randy). Now here she was, her heart pumping so loudly in her ears that she could barely process the words the minister was saying. She felt sick, but excited, all at the same time. Randy looked calm, happy. She could hear the words from the Monsignor's mouth.

"...Speak now or forever hold their peace." For a moment, all was quiet. She smiled, and then, something stirred. A baby was crying. It was so loud in the completely silent church that everyone moved in their chairs to see who had been so inconsiderate as to bring their crying baby to a wedding. Curious, Caroline turned to the audience, wondering whose baby that could be? She couldn't remember anyone bringing a baby, it all seemed so odd. In fact, everyone looked confused. And then, knowing suddenly exactly which baby was crying, she looked up.

He wasn't even aware of her. For a second, she thought maybe it wasn't even him, he looked so absorbed in the baby, trying to coo it back to sleep. Caroline didn't know why, but her feet carried her down from the alter, trying to adjust her view, get a better look, make sure her mind wasn't playing some cruel, badly-timed joke on her. And just then, he looked up. Richard. He hadn't changed at all, she supposed. He looked just the same. Same silly coat, same gray sweater. Same hair. But in his arms, hidden from view, was a crying baby, wrapped in a blanket she had picked out.

"Honey, your quickest way out is right over there." It was her mother, looking as she had looked for months, like she had seen this coming from miles away. Strangely, Caroline hadn't felt that way. In fact Caroline hadn't thought of Richard in months.

For the weeks after he was gone, she had been inconsolable. She felt like she had experienced a death of some sort, as if not only someone she had loved had died, but a significant part of her had died as well. It was lucky she had already taken a leave of absence from her comic strip because otherwise she wouldn't have been able to work. Annie and Del would come over, and she would try and act the same, but it all felt like a grande illusion that everyone was painfully aware of. Annie even had to disconnect Caroline's phone because she had come so close to calling Richard and trying to find some way to fix all this. But there was no quick fix.

The break-up seemed so silly, because it wasn't based on something new she had learned, or something she had done. All her past break-ups were results of cheating, incompatibility, another person, or a fight. But with Richard, she had simply realized that all the things that made Richard who he was, that made him so different from all the other guys she had ever dated, were also the same things that made him impossible. He didn't want a house in the suburbs and 2.5 kids, he wanted to be a successful artist, to maybe have a wife by his side to enjoy it with (or be miserable with, knowing Richard). And while fatherhood had been thrust upon him, he couldn't even muster a smile. He was impossible. But she was so in love with him that life without him seemed impossible too.

And so she had let grief overtake her until, one day, Annie brought Randy. Randy was so easy. She and Richard had thrived because their contrasting personalities had made everyday interesting, but she and Randy were similar. He met the world with a smile, and loved to laugh and be silly. He liked people, he was a pediatrician. They knew all the same people and had so many old stories and shared history. Every moment with him was light and fun, so simple and without strain. It had never been like that with Richard. Even at their best, there had been not-infrequent moments when Richard had been extremely difficult to be around because he was so stubbornly set in his ways. With Randy, it had never been like that.

So, for months, she had never thought of Richard. In fact, there was sort of a mental block, a short-circuit in her brain whenever something reminded her of him. Randy had suggested she come back to Peshtigo with him. He said she should look at it like a vacation, and she could spend some time with her parents and enjoy her break from work. And, as an added bonus, there wasn't much there to bring memories of Richard. But her 'little break' quickly turned into a more permanent living situation. Without realizing it, she had taken most of her important things with her to Peshtigo, and then there hadn't seemed like much reason to go back to New York. And so, she had made the arrangements to work from Peshtigo, and very suddenly, without any true forethought, she had moved home again.

When she started working again, she immediately got a new assistant who was talkative and cheerful, who wouldn't allow her to dwell on the lack of a black-clad cynic sitting across from her critiquing every little detail of her comics until she dreamed about stabbing him with a pencil. Or maybe kissing him. Del hadn't been happy that she was working from Peshtigo, but he really hadn't had much of a say and she was always able to mail her work in on time. She never kept art around the house, she only watched cheerful movies, and she made it a point to never have any black clothing around. Really, there was nothing that could possible remind her of Richard. She never thought of him, it was like a fuzzy gray area in the back of her mind that existed but that she never visited.

Falling for Randy had been so simple. It had felt _right_. When she had moved to Peshtigo, he had been the perfect gentleman, sleeping in the separate bedroom, making breakfast in the mornings, re-integrating her into the town's activities and re-introducing her around. They played silly games and danced together. The went to the movies and he would make fun of her when she teared up at the end of the romantic comedies, when the couple finally got together. For a few weeks, nothing happened between them. But then, one day, he had taken her out on a long walk. It was the first truly warm day of spring, and all the flowers were beginning to bloom. They went a short hike, where the new bugs buzzed near their ears and bright colors peaked out of hesitant bulbs on mostly-bare trees. And, out of nowhere, he had said it.

"Caroline, I love you." They had been talking about their high school football team. He had just said it. She felt her face burn, but she hadn't been embarrassed. She had been happy. She felt her face crack into a smile, probably the first truly genuine smile she had mustered in months. "I don't want to push you into anything, or make you feel uncomfortable, I just, well, I just love you. And I thought you should know. And I get it, if you're still hung up on Richard."

The name stirred an amorphous ache somewhere within her, but it was easily ignored. Maybe in response to the pain, to spite it or beat it or just to prove it was residual and not overwhelming, she had stood on her toes and kissed Randy, right there, among the flowers. Part of her expected to step back, realize that she was just using Randy and that she really was still in love with Richard. But little butterflies flew around in her stomach, and her heart beat in her ears, and it hadn't been difficult or confusing. She liked it. She liked him. She maybe even loved him. She had kissed him again. _Yes_, she thought, _I might really love Randy. _And that little ache had ceased.

She had meant to take things slow, to really prove to herself that she loved Randy and didn't simply not love Richard anymore. But as they walked back, hand in hand, she didn't want slow. She wanted fast, right now fast. Her steps quickened as they got closer to the house, and she could barely contain herself as they got through the doors. Weeks together in this house, she knew that she had wanted this the whole time, and obviously he had to. She was pealing his shirt off, while he struggled to undo the buttons of her shirt. The last time she had done this, she had been with Richard, before everything had so quickly fallen apart. Richard had been different, this had been different with him. Randy was muscular, an outdoors-type who worked with tools and fixed things around the house. His hands were slightly rough from doing odd jobs for people around town, from building the new shed in the backyard and playing touch football with some old high school friends. The most work Richard had ever done was hold on to a paintbrush for a few hours too long. The way Randy's hands brushed over her skin was different. She pushed Richard from her mind, the fact that his kisses were different and his hands and the way he had moved. He had been pale and skinny, and when they had been together that self-inflicted misery he always suffered from would melt away just for a second and there was nothing there but total and complete love for her. But Randy didn't have any misery to lose, she did, and she let him take it away.

And just like that, they had been together. Annie, of course, proclaimed that she had seen this coming the whole time over the phone. Del had made some dumb comment about getting back in the saddle, and Caroline could hear Annie hitting him through the phone. And from there, it was like puzzle pieces falling into place. The people in town seemed to already assume they were together, and so nothing really changed. In fact, only her parents had been skeptical. She had invited them over to dinner, and she had Randy had revealed that they were now dating. Her father and mother had exchanged a look, but had kept silent.

Just another few months later, he had proposed. She had woken up in bed surrounded by rose pedals, breakfast already made (eggs scrambled the way she liked, toast, and a daisy in a little glass). Randy liked big romantic gestures. He managed to find a horse and buggy to pick her up on their first date. He took her dancing and had the band play a song just for her. And that morning, he brought her breakfast with a little box perched on the corner of the tray. Her eyes had welled up with tears as he had opened it, and a little diamond had peaked out at her.

"Caroline Duffy, will you marry me?" he had asked, and tears streaming down her cheeks, she had accepted.

"Yes, yes of course!" she had sobbed, as he had slipped the ring onto her finger. It had fit perfectly. It was the perfect ring, given to her by the perfect man. She smiled through that little ache.

The both wanted a big wedding. With Richard, every little detail of their wedding had been pulling teeth. He wanted to elope, he didn't want family there, he just wanted to be married. But with Randy, they seemed to think with one mind. They both knew the Monsignor and had agreed immediately he would marry them. They both wanted to go to the local chapel, and their guest lists had been very similar (though hers was more substantial, as she had friends from New York she needed to invite. Caroline even managed to convince Charlie to fly back for the wedding, as he was in Europe and had called her every few weeks to tell her about all the nice people he had met and the things he had seen. Admittedly, convincing him hadn't been the hardest thing she had ever done, he wasn't exactly stubborn). They liked the same food, both excitedly agreed to the same band, and in every way proved how compatible they were. Everyone was happy, though her parents again exchanged that look. Later, Caroline asked what the problem was.

"Well, dear, it's not like we haven't been down this road before," her mother had said. Caroline had laughed it off at the time, but that ache had acted up again.

As the wedding approached, Annie had flown in to be by Caroline's side. She had just ended a run in an off-broadway show that had been a surprise hit, and though she had been a supporting character she had gotten well-reviewed. She was also glowing with new love, though she still claimed that she and Del were "not in a relationship. Seriously, I would rather be dead."

And so the day of the wedding came. Caroline had slipped into the white dress, her stomach filled with butterflies and feeling nauseous. This was her dream. She would have the right guy, the house in Peshtigo and the 2.5 kids.

And then a baby cried, and she looked up into the balcony of the church and there had been a man who, by all outward appearances, was exactly the same person she had last seen through tears getting on a plane to Italy. She thought maybe she was imagining it. Even though he was the same Richard, he was different and she could feel it, even from so far away. Their eyes met, and he smiled, a smile so carefree she was sure it was an impostor. He waved while cradling his little son, in the blanket she had picked out for him. And her mother had said those words.

"Honey, your quickest way out is right over there."

But she hadn't been thinking about leaving. She hadn't been thinking about anything. Her mind was a total blank, and here she was in the middle of her wedding. All eyes were on her. And she had absolutely no idea what she was going to do.


	2. Chapter 2: Richard and Stephano

Richard had never wanted children. When he thought of children, he thought of himself as a child, and when he thought of himself as a child, he remembered misery. It was a different sort of misery than the type he usually felt when he looked at the ugliness and strife of the world and the level of stupidity of the people he was surrounded by. This was the sort of misery that came from watching your father and mother throwing their wedding china at each other at three in the morning, their voices hoarse from screaming at each other for hours. It was the sort of misery that came from being the skinny pale kid at school who couldn't play sports and who was artistically talented. It was the sort of misery that came after he saw his father for the first time in months and he had forgotten how old his son was. And bringing a child into the world, especially one who shared his own DNA, seemed downright wrong.

When Richard had married Julia, she had understood that perfectly. She hadn't wanted children either. He couldn't imagine Julia giving up her fancy clothes and her nightly parties and her freedom to stay home and take care of a baby. He had known Julia for years, and they had talked about the world strife and misery, or he had talked about it and she had nodded and smiled and kissed him. And when he had first known her, he had thought her so deep and soulful, and that she had fun because she understood the futility of life. But once he had married her, he realized that wasn't it at all. She didn't understand the futility of life or the misery he felt. She just liked to have fun. She liked her money and her pretty things, but she could find shallow joys even in the days when they had no money and were living in his tiny, horrible apartment.

And then there was Caroline. When he had been younger, he probably never would have fallen for someone like her, or maybe he just wouldn't have been able to imagine it. She was always cheerful and bubbly, and sometimes downright naive. She seemed incapable of understanding that other people's intentions were not always as pure as her own. She took things seriously and cared so deeply for people sometimes he was astonished by the depth of her kindness. And while he would never have considered cartooning an art form, the amount of effort and thought she put into her work impressed him. And though he might have thought his job as her colorist was beneath him, he somehow didn't mind helping her bring her ideas to the page and the world. In fact, deep down, he was truly happy, and maybe even honored to do it (though he would never, ever admit that out loud to her or anyone else).

And so he had fallen for Caroline, working across from her in her apartment and coloring her drawings. But she had had a boyfriend, Del, and hadn't thought of him like that. Once, he had gotten the courage to write her a letter, but it had never reached her and he was eternally grateful. Afterwards, everything reset itself, and things between them settled, even after Caroline had dumped Del at the alter. Then Julia had returned and all his old feelings for her had flooded back, and he had married her in a fit of passion. That was before he had discovered the truth about her, and before Annie had accidentally let slip that Caroline had feelings for him.

The information had rocked his world. Over the years, he had become fully convinced that he and Caroline were totally incompatible. Friends, truly, but lovers? They were totally wrong for each other! His feelings had been a fluke, a result of spending far too much time near each other, alone. But she loved him? Why? What about him had she fallen for? But they never discussed it, not properly. Julia had deleted Caroline's phone message revealing her true feelings, and maybe that was all for the best, like his misdirected love note to her. And they were both with other people. But knowing the truth, he found himself imagining things with Caroline, and not with his wife. What would Caroline say to that? How would Caroline react if he showed her his painting? Would she like the German art film depicting the healing power of grief (probably not, but she wouldn't spend the entire film talking on her phone, loudly, in Italian, and then complain that the producers should have spent more on the costumes)? He found himself watching Caroline across the desk as they worked, reading her every expression when she was with Trevor (did she look slightly disappointed there? Was that annoyance he sensed?). And Trevor had truly hated Richard, and Richard couldn't figure out whether it was because he had caught him staring at his girlfriend a few too many times, or whether it was the not-infrequent times that Caroline and Richard's eyes had met as if, could he even hope, she might be watching him too?

Then Caroline had told Richard that Julia was cheating, and he had rushed off to Spain to confront her. On the plane over there, he had felt his chest burning with anger. She had cheated on him? How could she! He had trusted her and she had betrayed him! But there was a nagging feeling, somewhere in the back of his mind, that in a way, he had been cheating on her too. Could he really say that he had been thinking of her for the last few weeks, when his mind had been full of Caroline? But he hadn't done anything about it, and he convinced himself that that was enough. He marched around, looking for the bullfighter who had slept with his wife. Later, it would be revealed that it was all a mistake, but something happened first that made it almost irrelevant. He was nearly trampled by a bull.

He had made it out with only a few sprains, a near-miracle. He had been lying in his bed in a swarm of warmth and imagination (also known as strong painkillers), and he had heard something happening in the hallway, but before his confused mind could figure out why those voices were so familiar, or who had just screamed, his wife had come in caked in a layer of white foam.

"What happened?" he asked groggily, trying to figure out if maybe this was all an illusion from his over-medicated mind. But then he remembered why he was there, and a flood of anger washed over him.

"Annie just did this to me," Julia said furiously, sitting down in the chair next to his bed. "Can you believe this? I never liked her."

"Julia, you-"

"I didn't cheat on you, Richard," she explained, seeming to calm down. "Caroline made a big mistake. A waitress at Remo's had the same bracelet. Can you believe her? Putting silly ideas in your head like that. I don't think we need her around anymore, do you?"

"What do you mean?" Richard asked, his heart suddenly speeding up. Because in his head, a picture was forming. Julia was there. He saw a whole life with her: painting in their light-filled, million-dollar New York apartment. Going to lavish parties with her, in fancy suits. Watching her buy jewelry worth more than he had made in ten years. But no where in the entire picture did he see Caroline. She was banished from their lives. Strangely, the fact that the bracelet hadn't belonged to Julia, that she hadn't cheated, had only cleared away the anger that had been clouding his own feelings: that he didn't love her. That he probably never had. And that imaging a life with her, and without Caroline was causing him physical pain. Then again, that might have been the painkillers wearing off. And then, he remembered the thoughts that had raced through his mind as he had bolted through the streets outrunning those bulls, with Caroline watching from above: _Oh my god, I may never see her again. I may die here and never see her again. _And he hadn't been thinking of Julia then.

"It was all a mistake! Let's put this behind us and not speak of it," Julia said, wiping more foam out of her hair. "I was thinking, my dear. Maybe you could stay in Spain. You don't have to come to the parties with me, but I'm sure you could paint here. My apartment as a little patio, you could spend your days painting outside in the beautiful Spanish weather. It'll be wonderful. And we can be together." And there was the implicit meaning in her words: "with me, and not Caroline."

"Julia, no," Richard replied, his mind made up. He knew what he had to do.

"You really want to go back to New York? Fine, I will come too! We should really be together, we can enjoy the new apartment-"

"Julia, no, I mean, this isn't working," Richard said. His mind, though hazy from the drugs, had never been so clear.

"Richard, this is nonsense. Your mind isn't clear-"

"No, Julia, listen. This isn't working. We both know it. Maybe a long time ago we had things in common but now? You should travel the world, enjoy yourself, and I'm just holding you back. I belong in New York."

"With Caroline," Julia said bitterly. She stood from the chair and began pacing. "This isn't about you and me. It's about Caroline. You have feelings for her. Richard, please, stay here in Spain. Some time away from her and you'll realize that you don't love her. This is ridiculous."

"No, Julia. I do." Richard couldn't believe it as the words left his mouth. The thoughts hidden in his head for so long finally coming to the surface. The real problem in his marriage with Julia. "I love Caroline, and staying in this marriage wouldn't be fair to either of us. I think we should get a divorce."

Richard wasn't totally sure what happened next. Julia screamed at him for a long time in Italian, and finally had to be dragged out by several nurses and a security guard. After that the hospital staff kicked him out rather unceremoniously, informing him he was too much trouble. He threatened to sue, but they closed the door in his face before he could get the words out. Without anywhere to go, he went to the airport and bought the cheapest ticket they had back to New York. He had a feeling he was going to have to pay for it himself. Sitting in the darkest back corner of the plane, he thought about Caroline. Caroline and her smile, Caroline and her laugh, the look on Caroline's face when she got upset over something stupid, or couldn't think of a come-back quickly enough. But mostly he thought about her being with someone else. He thought about Trevor. How could he win against that? He was, in every way, better for her than Richard was. So he vowed not to say anything, but he couldn't help stopping by her apartment first, because though he actually had his key to his apartment, he needed an excuse to see her.

But in the end, she and Trevor weren't together. She loved Richard, incredibly, and he loved her. And though they chose to wait to be together, it didn't matter because somehow, everything had worked out and the girl who seemed to be wrong for him was actually so right.

But he still kept himself at a distance. What if he messed this up too, what if she was just an illusion, like Julia? What if she realized how truly broken he was? And there had been times when she had come close. Their relationship stagnated, he was too afraid to move forward and Randy had come into the picture. Randy, who was everything that Caroline had always wanted. Richard was sick at the thought of living in Wisconsin with kids and a dog but Randy wanted all those things. He wanted that future with Caroline. But, after being held up at gunpoint in his local video store, Richard came to the conclusion that something about him had changed. Maybe he would never want all the things that Caroline wanted, but he wanted her. No, he needed her, more than he had ever needed anything. His whole life he had been unhappy, miserable, looking at the world through a veil of darkness. But with her, he didn't. And so he had realized he wanted to marry her, now, today, to eliminate any possibility that anyone else could take her away from him. But just when they had come so close, something had happened.

Richard never wanted children, but now he was a father. Julia had been furious with him, she had stomped off and, after realizing she was pregnant, refused to tell him for months. But to prove the baby was legitimate they needed his signature, and so he had received the forms. He was a father. He had no concept of what this meant for him, what being a father meant at all. What had his father taught him? That the bare minimum was probably enough so that the kid would remember what you looked like. That bringing a toy meant for an age group several years younger was enough to fulfill your obligation for a while. That sending a birthday card obviously written by your comedy show manager would make your son happy. If Richard knew anything about misery, he knew that that would cause it. It wasn't about the gifts, but about the clear fact that it wasn't about love. It was like paying a bill or filling the car with gas. It was just something that had to be done. And Richard's son wouldn't feel that way, if he had any say. But just because he would make sure this child was happy, didn't mean he wanted more children. He had never wanted them, and Caroline had known that. And yet, as they were leaving to meet this child, it was like it finally hit her. He saw it happen, and then, as quickly as they had been together, they were apart.

He didn't have time to think about the ripping pain he felt without her, because now he had Stephano. From the moment the baby had been placed in his arms, he knew his work was cut out for him. It was small, round, and delicate. It cried when given to Richard, which he thought was a perfectly understandable reaction. But then he actually looked, _really _looked at it. Him. Stephano. He gave him the blanket Caroline had picked out and he stopped crying, and from that moment, Richard realized that besides half of their DNA they had something in common. Extremely good taste.

Being a father was a lot more difficult that Richard had thought. It turned out, there was a reason his father wasn't around much, because when you were around, the work never seemed to stop. A diaper always needed to be changed, a cry to decipher, or a rash to worry about. The world was suddenly filled with unspeakable danger. Every outlet was electricity waiting to electrocute his child. Every table corner was a concussion, every knife a weapon that his baby, despite being unable to lift his own head, would somehow get a hold of. And while he spent most of his day panicked something might happen, he spent the rest so tired that standing was often too much for him. He was so distracted he barely thought of Caroline, except to wonder what she was doing, how she was doing, or whether she ever thought of him. So, maybe he thought about her a little. But otherwise, he was totally absorbed. He had art flashcards for Stephano, who he was convinced already had the hands of a little artist. He bought him toys, but he always stayed around to play with them together. But, with Stephano came a somewhat less welcome person.

Julia hadn't changed at all. She had marched in just after he had first met Stephano, and was trying to get him to sleep.

"I told the nanny only an hour," she barked, looking somewhat overdressed for a new mother in couture clothing. But the dark circles under her eyes gave her away.

"It's been ten minutes," Richard replied shortly. "Julia, let's not fight. We have-"

"Where's that whore," Julia said, her eyes roaming the room. "Where is she? I know she's here."

"Who, you mean Caroline?" Richard asked, keeping down a burning anger. How had he ever been married to this woman? Richard carefully placed Stephano in the basinet.

"Yes. I know things, Richard. I know you and that bitch were together after I left you," Julia replied hotly. Stephano started crying again then, and the nanny burst into the room.

"Please, outside," she ordered, pushing them into the hallway. "Or I'll put another curse on you." In the hall, Julia and Richard continued, in somewhat more hushed tones.

"Don't talk about Caroline that way," Richard hissed, trying to keep his voice down and avoid another crying fit. He didn't know how much more his ears could take. "And anyway, if you have to know, she didn't come with me." Julia looked surprised.

"I knew you wouldn't last," she said maliciously. "I hope you don't think you can come back to me."

"Believe me, I'd rather bathe in acid," Richard growled. Julia crossed her arms and looked away, and he wondered whether she had expected, or wanted, a different response from him. But he had nothing else to give her. "And anyway, how can you be angry with me? You didn't even tell me you were pregnant."

"Would it have changed anything?" She asked, and he had to admit that it probably wouldn't have, except maybe he would have tried to convince her to get an abortion. It seemed like a strange thing to think about, only moments after he had held his son.

"Look, none of that matters now," Richard said. He wanted to go back into the room, to see his son, once more, before Julia kicked him out. "Can I come again tomorrow?"

"I'll tell the nanny you can spend an hour with him," Julia replied, not sounding happy about it. Richard was surprised she was being so easy about all this. "I'm flying to Paris tonight, so I won't be here."

"Excuse me?"

"I've been feeling down lately," Julia said, brushing aside a strand of her clearly newly salon-cut hair. "I think it's what you call postpartum depression. A few days away will cure it, I think." She had then turned on her heel and walked away. Richard realized that the reason she was so easily forgiving him was because, as had always been true of both of them before, she had never wanted a child. But she had one now, they both did, only she saw parenthood the way Richard's father always had. It was an obligation, and she would only fulfill it to the extent that was necessary.

From there, an hour with Stephano became two, then three, then finally Richard moved into the house while Julia was traveling in Portugal. Julia usually was away for two weeks and would return for a few days, spend a little time struggling to connect to her baby, who barely seemed to recognize her, then proclaim that a dark mood had overtaken her and flit off to another expensive location to lift her spirits. And all the while, Richard was settling into his life as a father, taking care of Stephano with the help of the nanny. But all that changed when one day, he bumped into someone he had absolutely had not expected to see.

After giving the nanny the day off, Richard had been showing his son art flashcards when Charlie had slid by. This was common in Richard's memory: he and Caroline together, exchanging insults with Annie, poking fun at Del, with Charlie skating by in the background, perhaps dropping a nonsensical comment as he did so. He didn't even think twice when he saw him, until suddenly he realized that it had been more than half a year and that the likelihood of this was so small.

"Hey Richard," Charlie said as he skated by.

"Oh, hey Charlie." And then, "Charlie, Charlie!"

"What"

"We've just run into each other half-way around the world, you weren't going to stop and say hello?"

"I did, I said 'hey Richard'." Apparently, Charlie hadn't changed much in the time since Richard had last seen him. They sat down together, and in the middle of their short conversation, something Charlie said made Richard feel like a ton of bricks had been dropped on top of him. Strange as it seemed, until Charlie mentioned Caroline's absence, Richard hadn't really thought of her as part of the picture of his fatherhood. But he loved being a father to Stephano, and for the first time in his life, he imagined that maybe it wouldn't be so bad if there were more children around. Without realizing it, he had truly changed. But then Charlie said something Richard hadn't thought of. Because he had thought of Caroline moving on, maybe having a boyfriend, but he hadn't been prepared for what came after that.

"You should let her know, you should say something to her. At the wedding," Charlie had said, after Richard had realized that the obstacle that had once seemed so insurmountable in his relationship with Caroline had melted away.

"Whose wedding?"

"Caroline's wedding."

"Caroline's getting married?"

"Ooh, she didn't invite you to the wedding. So see, isn't this awkward, I knew I shouldn't have stopped."

He had told himself he could be happy for her. He had told himself that he had someone in his life now who needed him and that his life was different, that he lived in Italy now and that things had changed. But he felt a huge pain wash over him when, for the first time, he was confronted with the very real situation: She had moved on, she had reached the place in her relationship he had been so terrified to go with her. While he had been distracted, Charlie had gotten up to leave and tried to skate away without being detected.

"Charlie when's the wedding," Richard asked.

"I don't know if I should tell you that," Charlie said, skating backwards a little as Richard advanced toward him.

"Charlie-"

"Alright, you've twisted my arm. It's in a week," Charlie replied. "Now can I go? I have a flight to catch in twenty seven hours and the airport is all uphill from here." Richard nodded, numbly watching Charlie skate away. He sat that way for a long time, until he realized it was getting dark and Stephano should probably go to bed.

That night, he lay awake, thinking about Caroline, in a wedding dress, at the alter, with someone else. Who had she met? He knew it could have been someone new, but in only seven months? It must be someone she had already known. Could Trevor have come back? Caroline's love for Richard had effectively destroyed that relationship, he probably wouldn't be too keen to pick up the pieces after Richard had left. Then Richard remembered. That guy from Peshitgo, the one Caroline had even admitted to having feelings for, that was the one, Richard was sure of it. The name 'Randy' still made him seethe with anger to this day. And, at roughly four in the morning, he knew he had to be there.

He wasn't going to stop the wedding. Richard wasn't good at big romantic gestures. In his life, he had done two, and both had ended badly. The first was the letter, which Caroline had never read. The second was his proposal, when he had been so desperate to propose he had had the paramedics wheel him up to her apartment. But ultimately that had been only a stop-gate measure that had put off the inevitable disintegration of their relationship by a few days. But he had to see her get married, maybe to make sure it was real, to get some sort of closure so that he could finally, _finally_ move on. But in order to go, he had something very important to take care of first.

The nanny agreed to watch Stephano for one night while Richard flew to Monte Carlo. This was the latest in Julia's measures to cheer herself up. Knowing her tastes, he looked for the most expensive hotel and managed to leave a message at her room. Then, after waiting until the early hours of morning, he saw her stumble in, buzzed and happy. That was, until she saw him. He was sitting in the lobby, and as he came up to her she looked confused and annoyed.

"What are you doing here Richard?" She asked, walking past him towards the elevators as if she thought she could out-walk him in thousand-dollar three-inch heels. He was obviously quicker. He walked into the elevator with her, essentially trapping them together for ten floors.

"I need to go back to America," Richard said, saying the words he had been rehearsing in his head since he had gotten on the plane that morning.

"So go," Julia said, waving her hand in the air. "The nanny will watch over Stephano until you return."

"Julia, I want to take him with me." Julia looked like she had stopped breathing for a moment.

"You want to visit your family, or-"

"Oh please, I wouldn't bring Stephano within a hundred miles of those people," Richard said, with a shiver. "I just want to go for a trip. I'll be back in a week or two. You still have his passport from when you took him to see your grandmother."

"This is about Caroline, isn't it?" Julia asked venomously.

"No," Richard lied. But he stopped himself. "She's getting married. I'm not trying to win her back."

"Why did you come all the way here to ask me this? You could have called, Richard, the phone is not difficult." They had reached the correct floor, where she had the presidential suite at the hotel. She seemed to be having trouble with the key.

"Julia, I was thinking, while I was there, I could make arrangements to move back." She stopped, and her whole body became still. "I love living in Italy, but my home is New York. My paintings are starting to sell, I could even live in a decent apartment now, at least not one with Salvador living in the walls. And I want to bring Stephano with me."

"You can't. He's my son."

"Only when you feel like it." But Richard kept himself in check. "I wouldn't be denying you access. You could come visit him whenever you wanted. It would be an excuse to be in New York. I know how much you love Saks." This seemed to touch on something hopeful within her. "We could try it out for a while, and if you didn't like it, we could move back." She was quiet for a while, but finally she managed to work the lock on the door and it swung open.

"Come inside," she said heavily. "Let's talk about this."

They spoke for hours, and Julia was surprisingly businesslike about the situation. He had a sneaking suspicion she had been waiting for this for a while, that it was a relief to her. Her obligation to Stephano grew ever smaller, and she was willing to let it slip away altogether. Part of him was angry at her, for being like his own father, maybe even less of a parent than he was. But part of him finally understood his father better, through Julia's eyes. How much more simple would his own life had been if Stephano had never been around? He would still be in New York, probably married by now. Maybe Caroline would have become pregnant and he could have discovered fatherhood with her at his side. But he was happy that things had ended like this. After all, he wouldn't trade Stephano for anything in the world. But for Julia, he wondered whether she still thought things could return to how they had been before their marriage and before Stephano. The both knew, somehow, that this was the right thing to do.

And, after a long night of working out details, they had a very rational, adult plan about how to deal with their changing circumstances. Richard would go back to America now and begin setting up his new living situation, and start painting to meet the new demand for his work. He had done a few pieces, especially in the early days when his access to Stephano had been more limited and he had had more time to brood. They had sold quite quickly, and now Regina Abbott, who had vowed several months ago to make him famous, was making good on her promise. So Richard, for perhaps the first time in his entire life, had a small savings that was solely, truly his. In a few months, once he had finished bringing all of Stephano's things and settled them into their new lives, Richard and Julia would have a meeting (complete with lawyers) to discuss whether both parties were happy with the arrangements and make more permanent and concrete plans for the future.

At the end of their long talk, Julia and Richard didn't hug or shake hands. They exchanged a knowing look, and as he left he managed to wave meekly at her.

Richard and Stephano flew to New York two days later, three days before Caroline's wedding. Richard arranged for them to be in a hotel which, just a few months ago, would have made it impossible for him to eat for about a month. He tried to keep himself busy with real estate agents and art galleries, but he still had more time than he liked, more time to think about Caroline. Namely, he had no idea where she was getting married, and he was running out of time to find out. So he called the one person he could think of who wouldn't immediately tell on him. He called Charlie.

"Oh, hey Richard," Charlie said. Richard was surprised the number was the same, but then he suspected Del had been paying the bill for the phone to make sure that Charlie checked in regularly. "What's up?"

"Hey Charlie. I'm in New York. Remember when you said I should talk to Caroline? Well, I'm here," Richard said breathlessly.

"Well, then what are you doing in New York?" Charlie asked. "Caroline lives in Peshtigo now."

"What?" Richard asked, all his well-laid plans falling apart, yet again.

"She moved a few months ago. I thought she told you."

"Again, Charlie, I haven't talked to her in months," Richard said, feeling a headache coming on.

"Oh, right, I forgot. See, now it's awkward again. I shouldn't have stopped to talk to you in Italy."

"No, Charlie, it's OK, it's OK! Just tell me where in Peshtigo she's getting married."

Richard and Stephano flew to Wisconsin the next day, and Richard had to admit that all this travel was becoming a little tiring. Was closure really worth this much work? Stephano didn't seem to mind, he slept well the entire flight. When they finally landed, it was a several hour drive until, finally, they passed the gas station and minimart that Caroline's mother had once proclaimed was the "new downtown" of Peshtigo, Wisconsin.

Richard found a bed and breakfast near the edge of town, and then spent the next day before the wedding finding the correct church. Lo and behold, there was that name on the announcement board: Randy. The name right next to that, despite all his hopes, still caused his heart to skip a little: Caroline.

The day of the wedding was beautiful and sunny, but there was a slight chill. Richard realized that, of course, he hadn't actually bought a suit for the occasion, but he wasn't going to be the center of attention so perhaps, he realized, that was a good thing. He put on a gray sweater and dark coat, and wrapped his son in the blanket he now couldn't sleep without, the one that Caroline had given him before Richard had even met him. He got to the church early and snuck in through the fire exit, then up the stairs into the balcony so no one would see him. Then, he waited.

The wedding began without any sort of hitch, though he had been secretly hoping that all the electricity would go out, or a massive fire might start, or maybe there would be a tornado. But none of those things happened. Annie walked down the aisle, with Del suspiciously following her along the pews. Then, there she was. Caroline was wearing a white dress, different from the one he had seen her in months ago when she was meant to marry him. And she was smiling. She looked happy. He watched, mesmerized, as she approached Randy at the alter, and the smile didn't even waver. She loved him. Richard felt like a part of him was breaking, and he wondered whether he should leave. He even got up to go, but the movement jostled Stephano, and he began wailing uncontrollable. Cursing under his breath, Richard struggled to get a toy out of his pocket and tried to calm Stephano down, his heart racing, trying to stop him so that his voice didn't echo quite so much in the silence. But he was aware, suddenly, that the minister wasn't speaking, that Richard was being watched.

He lifted his eyes, and there she was, staring at him, a little smile on her face, looking stunned but beautiful. Unsure what to do, he smiled back, giving her a little wave with Stephano's toy still in his hands. And for the briefest of moments, it was like it wasn't her wedding day, like they were in a crowded street and just happened to pass by each other, and yet it was as if they were the only two people on the entire planet.


	3. Chapter 3: Caroline and the Hospital

"Honey, your quickest way out is right over there."

Caroline was frozen to the spot. Then, that gray fuzzy area somewhere in the back of her mind seemed to be taking over, things became gray and unformed and then... everything went black.

She woke up with Randy sitting over her, tapping the side of her face gently. His eyebrows were wrinkled and he looked concerned, but when he noticed her eyes were open a wave of relief washed over his features.

"Caroline, thank god, you're awake. She's awake, everyone! She's alright." Annie fell to her other side.

"Caroline, what's wrong? Can you stand?"

"No, stay down," Randy said, placing a sturdy hand on her shoulder to keep her from moving. "She shouldn't move until the paramedics get here. I can't do a full examination until we get to the hospital."

"I don't need to go to the hospital. I'm fine! Everything's fine! Randy, this is our day, we can't let this ruin it."

"Let what ruin it, exactly?" Randy said, and she realized for the first time he wasn't looking her in the eye. "You fainted because you saw Richard." She was wondering whether she had imagined that, but evidently he really was here. Automatically, her eyes turned to the crowd that had formed around her. But he wasn't there, and there were no sounds of a crying baby. He was gone. "You're looking for him, aren't you?"

"No, Randy, it's not like that. I love you! I'm marrying you! I was just surprised and overwhelmed. Really. Let's get married." Now he looked at her, and he seemed at least somewhat convinced.

"You should still go to the hospital," he said, and as if on cue two blue-clad paramedics burst through the door. They began checking her over as whispers broke out among the crowd. Forcing a smile, Randy stood and addressed the crowd.

"Everyone, the wedding isn't cancelled! It's just postponed for a few hours! So, go to the reception and enjoy yourselves!" Randy called out to the crowd. Meanwhile, Caroline was pushed into a wheelchair and brought outside. Her eyes roamed over the people mulling around watching her.

"He's not here, Caroline." It was Annie, still by her side.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Caroline replied vaguely. But Annie knew her too well.

"Oh, come on Caroline. I know you're looking for the Prince of Darkness," Annie scoffed. "I think I saw him flee through the side door. He's good at that."

"Annie, he didn't flee. We wanted different things, it was a mutual decision for him to go to Italy alone."

"Caroline, you're too nice! He was too afraid to change for you, and he ran off to Italy. And he came back long enough to ruin your wedding."

"I really don't want to talk about this," Caroline said, her head pounding. "I think I might have hit my head on the floor." Just then, a smiling Randy jogged out of the church, and jumped into the ambulance with her.

"Sorry, only one of you can ride with us," the paramedic barked. Annie obediently climbed out, but Caroline knew she'd be following close behind in a car.

Apparently, Caroline had hit her head quite hard in the church. With Randy sitting close by her holding her hand tightly, the were told that there was no way she could be checked out that day. They had to do a CAT scan, and then she was going to be kept for 24 hour observation.

"Randy, we can do the ceremony here!" Caroline was saying. "We could get the Monsignor in here, and then our friends and family, and then we can have the reception tomorrow! Please!"

"No, Caroline, that wouldn't be right," Randy replied, though his smiled looked a little strained. "You always wanted the big church wedding, and you'll have it. We'll just have to do it tomorrow. I'm sure everyone will come again tomorrow." He stayed with her a while longer while Caroline underwent some routine blood tests and her CAT scan, and was hooked up to monitors. But soon enough a sour-faced nurse bustled in with a clipboard and squeaky shoes.

"Visiting hours are over," she barked at Randy. He didn't move.

"Come on," he said, with his most charming smile. "This was supposed to be our wedding night. Have a little compassion!" The nurse gave him a blank stare.

"Visiting hours are over," she repeated.

"Just a few seconds to say goodbye then!" Randy cried out, in mock desperation. The nurse nodded. Randy turned to Caroline, but before he could even open his mouth, the nurse barked again.

"That was three seconds," she said. "Now get out." Ducking in for a quick kiss, Randy said goodbye as the nurse physically shoved him out the door. Then she turned back to Caroline. "Are you alright? Are you comfortable?"

"Yes, everything's good," Caroline said. "Well, actually, if I could have another pi-"

But before the words had left her mouth, the nurse had slammed the door behind her. Then everything was quiet.

Caroline suddenly became painfully aware that she had nothing to do. It was too early to fall asleep, there were no books to be seen, and apparently the television was permanently set on the golfing network. Just when she was beginning to think she would die of boredom, the doorknob turned and she felt a spring of excitement.

"Oh, nurse, thank god, I don't want to bother you, but is there any way you go and get me a book or something-" but her words caught in her throat, and she felt like she had been kicked, very hard, in the stomach. It wasn't the nurse before her, but Richard. He had his son perched in one arm and had used his other hand to open the door. He entered the room quickly, shutting the door behind him.

"Hi," he said, moving to the side of her bed.

"Hi," she managed to reply, her mouth completely dry. Their last meeting had been so horrible, so heartbreaking. Before these greetings, the last thing they had said to each other was that they were be in love for the rest of their lives. And now here they were, on her supposed-to-be wedding night, with his half-asleep son as a witness. She realized this was an excuse to change the topic for a second. "Is that Stephano?"

"Actually, this is a baby I stole at the airport," he replied simply. "So if the police come looking..."

"He's beautiful," she said, watching the little baby. He resembled his father so much, it was unsettling. There was none of Julia's tanned skin or brown eyes. He was pale, and his closing eyes were definitely blue. He had wisps of light hair on his funny little head, and he was clad in black baby clothes. And right now he was wrapped in the blanket she had bought for him. "You seem to be doing really well."

"Yeah, you too. You're getting married," Richard said, and as the words floated into the air it was clear he regretted them. A painful awkwardness fell over them.

"Richard, um, I'm happy you came," Caroline said, looking away. "How did you even know?"

"I bumped into Charlie."

"Really?"

"No, actually, I think it was another guy on a pair of roller skates."

"Richard, can you be serious for a second?"

"What do you want me to say, Caroline?" Richard replied, his tone becoming instantly sharper. "I haven't seen you in six months, I haven't heard a word about you, and then I bump into Charlie and I had to hear the news from him."

"Well, I didn't exactly know how to contact you, Richard. And even if I had, what did you want me to say? 'Oh, hey, haven't seen you in a while, by the way I'm getting married'?" Caroline rubbed her temples. Her headache was getting worse and she felt like her whole body was throbbing.

"I just thought that what we had meant more than that."

"It does!" she said, and then her voice faltered, and her eyes become wide. "Did. It did." She felt her face burn. "And anyway, if you were so angry, why did you even come?" Now it was Richard's turn to blush. But before he had a chance to answer, the door swung open and the nurse had returned.

"I thought I told you," she began, but then realized that Richard and Randy were not the same person. A cruel little grin spread over her face. "Oh, I see. It's like a revolving door in this room. Well, I'll have to tell _this_ boyfriend to leave too."

"No, no, it's not like that-" Caroline and Richard began simultaneously, trying to talk over each other to explain what happened. But before either could formulate a coherent sentence, their party gained yet another person.

"Hey Caroline, Annie's just parking the car, and-" Del stopped mid-sentence, and his thick eyebrows raised as he saw Richard and Stephano. "Oh, hey Richard. It's been a while! How've ya been?" Del smiled, but there was definitely an awkwardness hanging heavy in the air. Just as Richard was going to respond, yet another person burst in.

"Del, you're not talking about Richie, are you? If I never see that cheerless vampire again... oh, hey Richard," Annie ended cheerfully.

"You knew I was here," Richard replied.

"Yeah," Annie said, with a little smile.

"Look, you all have to leave here right now," the nurse announced, but before she could even finish, Randy came in, with a smile that quickly disappeared as he saw Richard. His expression soured, and without another word he turned around and left. "I like him," the nurse said, nodding and looking after him. "You should choose him."

"I'm not choosing anyone," Caroline cried out, exasperated. "Randy, come back! It's a mistake, please, Richard's just-" Just then, as if it wasn't overwhelming enough, Stephano was woken by the noise and started screaming.

"Everyone, go," the nurse said, pushing Annie and Del out. As Richard followed, she gave him a snide smile.

Caroline hid her face in her hands. This was all too much.


	4. Chapter 4: Richard and the Angry Fiance

Richard paced around the near-empty waiting room, jiggling Stephano up and down and hoping that he was just stop crying for one second so he could try and process what had happened. He couldn't believe it. His plan to not interfere had certainly deviated somewhat since this morning. Just as Stephano's sobs were calming, Annie stomped into the room, her cheeks burning with anger, Del following a few feet behind her. Richard couldn't help but wonder why Del looked like a puppy following its master.

"Richie, you never fail to ruin a day, but did it have to be this one?" Annie asked furiously, causing several nurses and doctors to look in their direction. Del managed to catch up with her, putting his hand on her shoulder and talking to her in a soothing tone.

"Annie, maybe we should go outside-"

"No, let's do this here. Come on, Richard. You had your chance."

"I'm not trying to get another chance," Richard replied, but even he thought he sounded insincere. Maybe he hadn't planned it, even now he didn't have any sort of plan. With Stephano's cries and Annie's accusatory tone, it was hard for him to figure out how he felt about anything. "I just wanted to see, to, um-"

"You wanted to ruin her day. You're a miserable human being, and you couldn't stand that she was happy without you."

"Oh, come on, Annie. If I wanted to ruin her day I think I could have come up with something more creative than having my son cry in the middle of the ceremony." Annie, still looking angry but not about-to-implode angry, turned her attention to Stephano, who had finally stopped crying and was resting his head against Richard's neck, his little eyes half-closed.

"So this is the demon-spawn," Annie said, though her voice had no venom, and he knew she was joking. "I've got to admit, Richie, you did something right." She reached out her hand, and ran her fingers through Stephano's hair.

"What are you doing?" Richard asked after a few seconds.

"Just checking for horns," she replied sweetly, withdrawing her hands. "He looks so normal. No one would guess this was the offspring of you and Julia."

"Amazing, isn't it?" Richard replied. Annie nodded, still watching Stephano sleep.

"Excuse me, visiting hours are over," a older, nasal doctor cut in, surprising all three of them. Thankfully, the baby didn't even stir. "You can come back tomorrow." Knowing there was nothing else they could do, they all shuffled out without another word. They left through a set of electronic doors and entered the deserted parking lot. Richard was just beginning to think about how comfortable the bed in his very small, very dingy bed-and-breakfast was going to be (also the feeling of not have Stephano in his arms, for although Richard thought he had the world's best son, he was getting older and holding him for several hours had made his arms feel as if they were going to fall off), when someone tapped him on the shoulder.

It was Randy. Bobbing back and forth aggressively, and possibly (no, definitely) drunkenly, he looked like a school bully raring for a fight. And, in case this wasn't enough of a threat, there were two people with him, standing on either side of him looking just as ready to beat Richard to a pulp. Richard recognized them as the people who had made his life unlivable last time he had visited Peshtigo. Trying to lighten to mood, he tried to appeal to their humanity.

"Look, Annie, Del, it's the Sweeney Brothers! You remember them! Guys, remember last time, we had such a good time!" The brothers' expressions didn't falter. "Come on, guys, you remember last time! Let's go get a beer! Or that game you guys really wanted to play, where we attach a wagon to the back of a pick-up... you know what? Maybe a different game." The gang was coming closer, looking more and more menacing with each advancing step. "Hey! You wouldn't hit a guy with a baby, right?" Richard felt somewhat guilty using his baby as a shield, but he didn't have enough dignity not to. If he remembered correctly, Randy was a pediatrician. His instincts had been right; Randy's anger broke somewhat.

"He's right," he said, apparently losing all his fight. From the stench that hit Richard's nose, he had been right about the alcohol. But just when Richard thought he was out of the woods, Randy continued. "Annie, can you take the baby?"

"Let's settle this calmly and rationally," Richard said, beginning to back away again.

"Look, man, I can't let you do this," Del said, jumping in between them. Though Del was definitely the larger man, it was pretty clear who was in better physical shape. While Del was tall with a little paunch, Randy had bulging muscles showing through his shirt.

"You're going to stop me?" Randy said, raising his eyebrows. Del hesitated for a second, then jumped out of the way with the agility of a schoolgirl.

"Sorry, buddy. You're on your own," he said to Richard, stepping behind Annie.

"Are you happy, Richard?" Randy asked, his anger returning full-force. "You ruined the wedding. Are you happy?"

"No," Richard replied half-truthfully. He was unhappy that Caroline was unhappy.

"Why are you here? To win her back? Because she's mine now," Randy slurred angrily.

"I know," Richard reassured. Part of him was screaming to encourage the hints of doubt he could hear in Randy's voice, but with his son in his arms, he couldn't. Maybe it was because Stephano reminded Richard that he had to set some sort of example, or maybe because he was still wrapped in that blanket, and Richard knew that this man was what Caroline wanted, he stopped himself from saying anything Randy could misconstrue. "It doesn't matter what I want. She wants you, that's all the counts. And tomorrow you'll be married and after that, I'll go. I promise." And Richard did promise, not to Randy, who he would have loved to spite, but to himself. He needed to see the wedding, to see the final nail in the coffin of his most significant relationship, but afterwards, he would be done. Finished. He would return to New York, paint with all the re-established misery this trip had brought him, and raise his son. Caroline, all the way in Peshtigo married to Randy with the family she had been so desperate for, would be out of his head for good. He made that promise to himself.

"She said that?" Randy asked uncertainly.

"She doesn't have to," Richard said, and he remembered Caroline in the church, staring at Randy as the Monsignor married them. "I've known her a long time. I see the way she looks at you. She loves you. I'm just..." he tried to find the right words for what exactly he was to Caroline. "I'm just an old friend to her."

"Yeah, that's right," Randy said, clearly liking this line of reasoning. "You're an old friend. You know what? You should come to the wedding. Sit in the front row. See her get married."

"You know, Randy, I'm not really sure that's a good idea," Richard replied, his mind playing the scene out like a movie. It wasn't pretty, though it certainly fit well into the genre Richard liked best: all the characters were terribly unhappy and one or all of them would be dead by the end.

"No. I insist," Randy said, a cruel edge to his voice. "You're just an old friend, after all. Now, I should go home and rest up. I'm getting married tomorrow!" Randy then turned around and wandered off, hopefully not towards a car. The Sweeney brothers were close behind him, shooting Richard dirty looks. Richard had to admit that, at least he had accomplished that one good thing today: he never had to worry about getting rid of them again. But he was having a hard time feeling happy about that, or anything, really. He probably would have stood there for hours, staring off after Randy and feeling a crushing pain he had managed to put off for several months, had Stephano not shifted in his arms and made him aware that they were still outside, it was getting chillier, and Annie and Del were still standing there, watching him.

"Well, I guess that's it, then," Richard said, and it felt like someone else was speaking, someone broken. "I should probably put Stephano to bed." Without any of them saying anymore, Richard walked to the crappy car he had rented, and drove back to his bed-and-breakfast. If he hadn't had Stephano with him, he wouldn't have bothered going back to bed, he would have gone to a bar and drunk away his sorrows. He always liked, or at least did, feel a crushing sense of misery and despair. That was his natural state. But it had never felt like this. He had never been in so much misery that he had felt the need to numb it. He knew only two things that could fix this feeling: drinking (a lot), and painting. But with no canvas and paints, Richard could only let his feelings wash over him. Once he may have relished them and thought of how they could later help his art; now he wanted them gone.

He told himself he was over her. That she had moved on. That he had moved on. That he didn't love her, at least not like he had. But those were lies. He loved her. He wanted her. And tomorrow, he was going to be forced to sit in the front row of a church and watch her marry someone else. If he had been the sort that cried, he would be now. But he wasn't. Instead, he concentrated on the gentle breaths of his son, his future, and tried not to think about how close he had been to having Caroline for himself.


	5. Chapter 5: Caroline and the Ring

Caroline awoke with the horrible realization that something was very, very wrong. It wasn't the fight with Randy; he had called a few hours later, sounding drunk but content, saying that he and Richard had talked it over and that he knew he had misunderstood. The idea of the two of them "talking it out" didn't sit well with Caroline, but she realized that, since Randy sounded alright and she hadn't received any gleeful calls from Annie reporting Richard's death, than it must be settled. She just wished that her stomach was so settled. It hadn't been like this the day before. She had been nervous, sure, but she hadn't felt like she was about to have a panic attack. She had barely slept all night, but in the early hours of the morning she had managed to drift off. Then she had had her horrible realization: she didn't have her engagement ring.

Even though it wasn't even fully light out yet, Caroline called Annie's hotel room. Her heart was pounding in her ears as the the phone rang, and finally she heard a muffled answer that was impossible to decipher. Without thinking, words began pouring out of her mouth.

"Annie, Annie I can't find my ring! My engagement ring! What am I going to do, Randy's going to think I don't love him! What am I going to do?" There was a long pause on the other end.

"Annie, I think this is for you," Del's voice said on the other end. Annie's clear voice then came on the line.

"Caroline, what's wrong?" Caroline repeated her panicked rant again, and when she was done, she heard Annie's reassuring answer: "I'll be right there."

In the time it took Annie to get to the hospital, Caroline was checked over by a doctor and given a clean bill of health, and told that if she experienced any dizziness, faintness, or anything else unusual, she should come back right away. She felt a bit ridiculous changing back into her wedding dress, though she had to admit it was easier than having to go home and get different clothes. However, it certainly garnered her some attention.

She stood in the waiting room, trying to avoid the curious looks she was receiving from those around her, until Annie came through the doors wearing her maid-of-honor dress, looking worried.

"Caroline, I came as quickly as I could," she said, and to her credit, she actually sounded like she was out of breath. "What happened?"

"I lost my engagement ring!" Caroline said, holding up her fourth finger frantically. "It's gone, Annie! What am I going to do!"

"Well, first, could you get your hand out of my face? It's making it hard to think," Annie said, taking her hand and gently bringing it down. "Second, who cares? You're getting a new ring today!"

"You don't understand, Annie," Caroline said, feeling herself beginning to hyperventilate. Maybe she had already been doing that, and it was just getting much worse. "Randy already thinks something is going on with me and Richard, what is he going to think if I lose the ring he gave me? He'll think I don't love him."

"That's ridiculous Caroline. Of course he doesn't think that," Annie said. But there was a look in her eye, like she had just recalled something. "But just in case, maybe we should find it before the wedding."

"But where could it be?" Caroline asked frantically. She had already torn up the hospital room, and all the nurses and doctors said they couldn't remember whether she was wearing one or not. It had become so natural to have it there she hadn't even glanced down at it to check that it still was.

"Maybe it fell off when you fainted!" Annie suggested. Caroline's logical mind picked up on this idea.

"Yeah, I mean, I have lost some weight for the wedding, and it was fitting a little looser. It could have..." she suddenly had an image of herself falling, in slow motion, in the church, the ring slipping off her finger and flying through the air dramatically. "That's it! We have to get to the church!"

"I'll have Charlie look for it," Annie said, taking out a cell phone and punching in the numbers quickly.

"Why would Charlie look for it?" Caroline asked, as Annie led her outside.

"He stayed at the church last night, he snuck in and slept on one of the pews," Annie replied.

"What! If I had known he didn't have a place to stay-"

"No, Del offered," Annie interrupted. "Charlie just said something about it being easier, and all the hotels being uphill." They got in the car, and Annie took out a phone and started talking rapidly. "Charlie, hey, it's me. Annie. What do you mean 'which Annie'? Look, I need you to look on the floor near the alter for a ring. Caroline's ring. Yes. Yes. OK. Keep looking." Annie hung up the phone. "Don't worry. Charlie will find it."

Things in Peshtigo tended to be quite close together, and in no time at all they had arrived at the church. Caroline jumped out of the car and bounded inside as quickly as her dress would allow. She was greeted by a smiling Charlie, skating towards her holding up something in the air excitedly.

"I found it!" he cried out cheerfully. He reached Caroline and dropped the object into her waiting hand. But her stomach dropped as she examined it more closely.

"Charlie, this is an old raison," Caroline said, dropping it on the floor in surprise and disgust.

"Oh. I thought it felt a little squishy for a diamond," Charlie replied. "We'll just have to keep looking."

And, at that exact moment, the doors opened and the last person Caroline expected walked in.

Richard had woken up that morning feeling like maybe it would be alright if he didn't get up at all, and just lay there staring at the ceiling for a few hours while the woman he loved married someone else. He thought it was a relatively reasonable reaction to his situation. But Stephano had no plans to sleep in. The owner of the bed-and-breakfast, a scatter-brained old lady who Richard was convinced believed it was the 1970s, had leant him a crib so old that it was possible it was the very first crib, ever. When he had asked, as politely as he could muster, if she might have one that didn't look like it might crack down the middle and deposit his son on the floor, she had replied that it had been her own crib, as well as several generations of her family. He had had to grit his teeth and spend most of the night staring at it and wondering if it would be safer to have Stephano in his own bed. But somehow, his son was alive at the end of the night, having (perhaps for the first time ever) slept better than his father.

Richard had gotten up, fed Stephano with baby food he had picked up the day before, bathed him and changed him, before realizing that he still had to get ready to go to the wedding. He had been tiptoeing, fearing that any noise would alert the owner he was awake. Last time he had stayed in a bed-and-breakfast, the night that was meant to be his first with Caroline, the owners had nearly killed each other, and Richard and Caroline had been rather unceremoniously thrown out. There weren't many places to stay in Peshtigo, and Richard couldn't risk getting thrown out of another hotel. Plus, nothing sounded less desirable than having to put up with the owner cooing over Stephano while she was supposed to be serving Richard brunch, which had happened the day before.

Richard had snuck out to his car, wearing the same outfit as the day before. He had come to a decision. Instead of taking Randy's drunken offer to sit in the first row of the church, he would sneak in early, like he had to day before. He would go up into the balcony, hide behind a pillar, watch the wedding, and as soon as humanly possibly, sneak out again without being seen. He didn't even intend to say goodbye or congratulations. As far as he was concerned, watching the wedding would put an end to all this, and he could finally let go and go back to New York, happy in the knowledge that Caroline had found some form of happiness, even if not with him. This time he had brought a stroller for Stephano, since his arms were still aching from the day before, and a toy at the ready so that if Stephano even made a peep he would be instantly entertained. Everything was going to be the way it should have been the day before; that is, if he hadn't walked into the church to find Caroline, Annie, and Charlie desperately wandering around the church with their eyes glued to the floor.

"Richard!" Caroline cried out.

"Great, just what we needed," Annie said under her breath. But, obviously, loud enough for Richard to hear.

"Caroline, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have..." Richard said, looking like he might turn around on the spot and leave. He was seriously considering it. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing," Caroline said guiltily. The last thing she needed was for Richard to think that there was going to be a problem with the wedding. Everything had to seem perfect.

"I thought we were looking for your ring! Are we not doing that anymore?" Charlie asked, straightening up from behind a pew. "See, no one ever tells me anything."

"You lost your ring?" Richard asked.

"It fell off when I fainted," Caroline corrected, her face burning. For some reason, talking about this with him seemed too personal, like they were crossing some sort of line. But maybe he didn't feel that, because his face broke out into a little smile, and he actually chuckled. "What? What's so funny?"

"Nothing, it's just... this is just like you," he replied, trying to suppress more laughter.

"That's not true!" she shot back defensively.

"Oh, come on Caroline! Remember the time you were supposed to go to that gallery opening with me but we spent the entire night looking for Grandma Duffy's necklace instead? Or that time you absolutely had to color Caroline's dress that particular red, even though I told you it didn't exist, and you took everything out of the desk and nearly took the whole thing apart before you believed me."

"That never happened," Caroline responded.

"That was the first year I worked for you," Richard said. "I think I'd been there about a month. I almost quit, I thought you were insane."

"Well, I guess I proved you right," she said, returning her gaze to the floor and scanning over every inch.

"No," Richard said, his voice suddenly serious. "No, I was wrong." There was an awkward pause, where they just stared into each other's eyes. It was broken by a loud, purposeful cough from Annie.

"Guys, I don't want to rush anyone, but people will be arriving soon," she said.

"Right, well, I'll help you," Richard said, wheeling the stroller so that it was in the middle of that aisle. He got down on his hands and knees.

"You don't have to," Caroline said. She too was getting down on her hands and knees, because her dress was already a little dirty from yesterday's debacle, what was a little more dust going to do, really?

"We're both adults here," Richard said, already crawling around and running his hands over the floor. There was awkward silence for a long time after that, punctuated only by their thumping hands and knees, as well as the sound of Charlie's bulky rollerblades gliding and banging along the floor. The silence was becoming almost unbearable, when Annie finally broke it.

"Richie, I'm surprised you were able to come inside the church at all. I'd think you would be repelled by the cross."

"Well, I'd think if one of us was on God's bad side, it'd be you. Didn't you turn a priest, once?"

"He was a former priest," Annie corrected. "And I can't help it if he couldn't resist me, can I?" There was a long pause. "What, no witty reply? You're losing your touch, Richie."

"No, I think I..." Richard was reaching under a pew, in the farthest corner. He felt something small, round, and cold. Metal. And it had a small angular stone on it. He knew what it was even before he brought it out into the light. Glinting in the sunlight pouring through the windows, there was no question: he'd found it. He crawled over to Caroline, holding it up excitedly.

"You found it!" she said, crawling in his direction. They met in the middle.

"I always do," he replied. Sitting back, he gestured for her to give him her hand. She did so without hesitation. It was only after he had her hand that they realized what they were doing. Their eyes moved to to each other's. Richard could hear his heart pumping in his ears. Caroline's stomach was tied in knots. His hands shaking, he began slipping the ring onto the correct finger, his eyes never deviating from hers. The moment might have lasted forever, had Stephano's toy not fallen to the ground, causing him to cry out for it. "I should get that," Richard said, jumping to his feet as quickly as he could and bolting to the other side of the room faster than a speeding bullet. "Maybe I should go."

"No, you don't have to," Caroline said, struggling to get to her feet in the big dress. It was now covered in gray streaks, but she hoped that no one would notice. "I want you to stay."

"No, really. I don't know what I was thinking. I should go back to New York." As he said it, he secretly hoped that she would contradict him, that she would fight a little harder for him to stay. For a second, he thought he saw the words forming on her lips. But the second passed, and he knew that he was done. Their moment was over. And he didn't need to see her get married to know that now. He rolled the stroller towards the door, feeling a wave of sadness, but also relief wash over him.

The bright light of day hit him directly in the eyes. He wondered whether there were any flights that day. Maybe he could get a hotel near the airport. He secured Stephano into the car seat and folded the stroller into the back. He would have to drive back to the bed-and-breakfast to pay and collect their bags, but he hadn't been planning to stay long so that would be a short trip. He put the key in the ignition, taking several tries to get the car to start. He was backing out of his parking spot when the doors to the church burst open. Caroline was rushing out, her white dress glowing in the fall sunlight, looking downright angelic, and waving something bright and squishy in the air: Stephano's toy. In the haste to get out as quickly as possible, he must have forgotten it on the floor. And then, in the second he was distracted, there was a thump. Caroline's face contorted into one of horror.

Richard jumped out of the car and found a moaning, black-clad figure on the ground.

"Oh my god," he managed to say. Caroline was at his side.

"You hit the Monsignor!" she cried out in horror.

And at that moment, Richard knew he wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.


	6. Chapter 6: Richard and the Monsignor

For the second time in the last hour, Caroline paced around the hospital waiting room in her huge wedding dress, fielding curious looks. However, this time, she wasn't alone. Richard was walking around in circles, bobbing up and down with Stephano in his arms, who appeared unwilling to be quiet unless he was in a constant state of motion. Charlie was whizzing through the halls excitedly while being chased by several nurses, and Annie was sitting in one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs, with Del at her side. He had arrived only moments after they had, and looked about half-way dressed, his glasses askew and his shirt buttons off by one.

"Just couldn't stand that she was marrying someone else, could you?" Annie asked Richard darkly.

"For the last time, It was an accident," Richard shot back, his voice uneven from the bouncing. "Do you really think I would intentionally hit a minister with Stephano in the car?"

"So if Stephano hadn't been in the car, you would have hit him?" Annie asked accusingly. Richard rolled his eyes, but remained quiet. Annie, seeming to warm to the subject, continued unheeded. "I mean, I get that you wanted to sabotage the wedding after Caroline dumped you, that you couldn't stand seeing her with another man who actually makes her happy and doesn't leave her crying in airports, but to actually run someone down in a car-"

"For god's sake, it was an accident! Caroline, will you tell her?"

But Caroline wasn't listening. She was just pacing back and forth, twisting her hands and saying, over and over "Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God." Richard, looking concerned, walked over and nudged her with his shoulder (as both his hands were occupied).

"Hey, it's going to be alright," he said, trying to sound reassuring even though, on the inside, he was panicking.

"What if he's really hurt, Richard?" Caroline said, her voice shaking from tears that hadn't fallen yet. "I've known Monsignor Mackatee my whole life. He married my parents, you know. What if he dies? And..." she paused her, looking guiltily at the floor. "And am I a selfish and terrible person if I'm worried about my wedding? If he dies-"

"I was driving about two miles per hour," Richard replied, exasperated. "He's not going to die." Her eyes really were shimmering with tears now, and she was staring into his. For what, he wondered? For comfort? For reassurance that it was alright to be worried about her wedding? "You'll get married," he told her, despite everything in him telling him to shut up. "You're not selfish or bad. Well, maybe a little." He laughed, and he thought he saw a little smile cross her face. His stomach fell when she said the next word.

"Randy!" she cried out, walking past Richard and throwing her arms around the man himself, who was dressed in the same tux as the day before and looking much more dapper than Richard in his less-than-clean gray sweater and jacket.

"One of the other doctors called me," he said, looking very confused. "What happened?"

"There was an accident," Caroline said, and they all shifted uncomfortably as Annie and Del's eyes fell on Richard. "Monsignor Mackatee was hurt."

"Oh..." Randy said, and then, without his eyes moving from Caroline's face: "What is he doing here?"

"Well, you see, Richie hit the Monsignor with his car," Annie supplied, looking almost gleeful. Randy's face darkened, and his hands fell away from Caroline face. He marched up to Richard, his whole body shaking.

"I should have hit you when I had the chance," he said. "I get that you don't want me and Caroline together, but to actually hit someone with a car-"

"It was an accident!" Richard cried out. "God, why won't anyone believe me!"

"I wouldn't bring 'God' up at a time like this," Annie cut in.

"I believe you, Richard," Del said, while simultaneously trying to fix the buttons on his shirt. He seemed to be making the problem worse.

"That means a lot to me," Richard said, stopping his bobbing for a second. A cry from Stephano made him begin once more.

"Well, just look at the facts," Del began, becoming defensive as Annie turned to him with a look at would make most people run for their lives. "If Richard really wanted to sabotage the wedding, he would have hit Randy with the car." There was a long, awkward silence. "I should stop talking, huh?"

"That would probably be for the best," Richard said. Just then, a doctor came out and the whole group encircled him expectantly.

"The good news is, the car barely scratched him," the doctor began. They all sighed with relief. "The bad news is, the shock of the accident gave him a heart attack." The relief disappeared instantaneously.

"But he's going to be alright, isn't he?" Caroline asked, tears welling up in her eyes. "He's not going to, you know... die, is he?"

"Oh, it was a very mild heart attack. He'll have to stay in the hospital for a few days, but he should be alright."

"Can I see the chart?" Randy asked, and perused it quickly. He then turned to the doctor and asked a lot of questions that Richard didn't understand.

"We'll have to file a report with the police, of course, but other than that-"

"Wait a minute," Richard said, stopping the man mid-sentence. "A report? It was an accident, no harm done. You just said he was going to be fine."

"Yes, but this was a car accident. We're required to report it to the police. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to my patient." The doctor walked off without another word. Richard stood there, no longer bouncing. His mind was running through the horrible possibilities.

"Richard, I'm sure the police will realize this was all a big mistake," Caroline said reassuringly, patting him on the shoulder and ignoring Randy's angry expression.

"Caroline, what if he presses assault charges?" Richard said, barely able to hear her over his own panicked thoughts. "I could go to jail. Stephano will go back to Julia and I'll never see him again. Do you think she'll let me anywhere near him after prison? Plus, assault could mean years in jail. I'll miss his first steps, his first words, I'll miss everything. And I don't know how well I'll do in jail."

"Come on, Richard. The skinny, pale, artistic types always do well. You remember high school, don't you? It'll be like that, but with criminals," Annie said.

"She's exaggerating Richard. And it won't come to that," Caroline cut in, shooting Annie a dirty look.

"Oh, who are we kidding? I should tattoo 'prison bitch' on my forehead now and get it over with," Richard replied. "Unless..." he looked like he had just come up with an idea. "Unless I talk to him, convince him not to press charges."

"Richard, I'm not sure that's a good idea," Caroline responded, but Richard looked lost in his thoughts. "You could make it worse."

"I have to try, Caroline. For Stephano." Caroline looked reluctant, but Stephano was going a long way towards convincing her Richard was right. His big blue eyes locked on hers, and Richard wondered whether his son, somehow, had some inkling of what was going on. "I know this is a lot to ask, but I don't think they'll let me into the room. I need some sort of distraction."

"No," Randy cut in. "Caroline, you can't do this. He got himself into this mess-" "But Randy," Caroline replied, her eyes not breaking away from Richard's pleading ones, "he has a son. I can't let him go to jail. You'll just talk to him, right Richard?"

"Right," Richard replied, wondering whether a bribe would help his cause at all.

"I won't be a part of this," Randy said, throwing his hands up in frustration.

"Well, no one was asking," Richard reassured him snidely.

Getting into the room was easier than they had thought it would be. Caroline just distracted some of the nurses outside by talking about her wedding while Richard slipped into the room with Stephano. He appreciated the fact that portraying himself as a loving father probably wasn't going to hurt him. He was surprised to see the Monsignor looking so sickly in the bed, changed into a loose-fitting gown and showing exhaustion lines on his face, but he had to keep himself task-oriented.

"Monsignor Mackatee?" Richard asked. The man turned to him and squinted.

"I'm sorry, son, but without my glasses..." he began, and Richard moved closer. "Do I know you?" Richard found this reassuring, because he wasn't sure how the man would feel about Richard after yesterday's wedding.

"I'm the guy who hit you with the car," Richard replied. "I just wanted to come in here, with my son Stephano, to apologize." Richard adjusted himself so that Stephano was front and center. "I'm so sorry. Really, this was all a big accident."

"Oh, I can't be angry with you," the Monsignor said, and Richard suspected that there were a great deal of drugs involved in that statement. "After all, how can I be upset when you came in so early to worship?"

"So early to... what?" Richard asked, totally off-guard. After all, he was a perfectly happy atheist, had been as far back as he could remember, and even if he hadn't been he came from a Jewish family. His aunt had been trying to force him to have a bar mitzvah since he had walked out on his first at thirteen, and his second just last year.

"Well, I assumed you had come in to pray, before the wedding. I'm afraid I rescheduled my sermon to a little later in the day, since that incident yesterday."

"Right, I heard," Richard replied. His mind was racing. He had previously backed out of his bar mitzvah, for which his aunt had promised him several thousand dollars, because he had known he was doing it for the wrong reasons. Caroline had reminded him of that on an hourly basis. But they were broken up now, he had no moral compass, and he wasn't about to lose money, but might actually be facing jail. His choice was clear. "You're right. I'm just so religious. I had to come in and talk to Jesus, and I just didn't see you."

"There just aren't enough good Christians these days," the Monsigor said, and Richard wondered whether he needed to stay and continue convincing. "You're one of the last. My flock has been decreasing in number for several years. People like you give me hope that maybe more people will keep their faith."

"I'm glad I could help you."

"And, you know, if I'm being honest, um, what was your name?"

"Richard."

"Right. Richard. Well, if I'm being honest, Richard, for the last few years I've been thinking that maybe its time to move on. In fact, a friend of mine wants me to open a little hotel in Jamaica with him, right on the beach. I always thought that sounded nice."

"You should do it," Richard replied. Monsignor Mackatee wouldn't sue a man who listened so attentively, right? "You could even give sermons for the visitors. After all, being a good Christian doesn't stop when you go on vacation."

"You're right, Richard. In fact, I'll call and make arrangements to go as soon as I get out of this hospital."

"Wait," Richard cut in, his stomach dropping. "You're leaving right away?"

"My friend's opening his hotel next week. If I want to be a part, I better get out there, right! Early bird gets the worm, and all that!"

"But what about Randy and Caroline? You were supposed to marry them!"

"Well, there are plenty of other people who can perform the ceremony-"

"But she wants you! Can't you marry them, then leave?"

"If I put it off, I'll never go. I'll just make more excuses."

"You can't leave!"

"I don't really like your tone, son. Maybe I should stick around for the police report."

Richard paused uncomfortably.

"But, you know, Jamaica _is_ really nice this year."

Richard left the room a few minutes later, no longer concerned about being seen. Monsignor Mackatee had told him he wouldn't press charges, and would tell the police it was absolutely an accident. But Richard had a sickening feeling of dread he couldn't quite shake, and he knew where it stemmed from. Monsignor Mackatee was adamant that he was leaving as soon as humanly possible, and as he would be in the hospital for several more days and would be packing until his flight, he wouldn't be able to perform Caroline and Randy's wedding.

Richard had to admit, for a man who wasn't actually attempting to sabotage Caroline's wedding, he was doing a very good job of doing just that.


	7. Chapter 7: Caroline and the Invitation

Caroline was having a very bad morning. It really was a credit to just how bad her day was that her time in the hospital with Monsignor Mackatee was the highlight of her morning. From there, things began to disintegrate fast.

After she had changed out of her wedding dress (which, admittedly, was a relief as the thing wasn't really meant to be worn for several days in a row and was definitely picking up a distinctive stench), she received a visit from Annie's mother. The woman wasn't known for her tact, and certainly lacked the acting skills of her daughter. She was twisting her hands and shuffling her feet guiltily, refusing to look Caroline in the eye.

"How is the Monsignor?" she asked, after Caroline had offered her a drink or possibly a three course meal. She and Randy had come back to the house to find a furious caterer waiting for them, with several dozen containers of food surrounding her. She had screamed for a while about waiting at the reception hall for several hours, with a staff of several dozen tux-clad waiters on hand. She had then informed them that they would not only pay her in full, but also take all the ruined food. She also said she would not be returning, and that if they needed a caterer they could go out and find someone else, because she wasn't going to do it. The reception hall had called a short time later, apologizing but making it clear that the hall was fully booked for several weeks. The band, too, had apparently had a huge falling out where the lead singer, Carl, thought he was the true talent and the guitar player, Saul, thought Carl was simply holding him back. They were refusing to speak to each other and said that they couldn't imagine being able to stand on a stage together to perform for even five minutes, let alone several hours. So while all these things were swimming in the back of Caroline's mind, Mrs. Spadaro had stopped by looking extremely uncomfortable and asking about the state of the Monsignor.

"Oh, he's doing just fine," Caroline replied, sounding oddly chipper. In fact, she was in an oddly chipper mood. Or, more accurately, she felt sort of numb and the only tone she could manage was slightly high-pitched and jittery. "He'll be out of the hospital in three days and then he's moving to Jamaica. Can you believe that? He's bought his plane ticket and everything!"

"Are you OK?" Mrs. Spadaro asked, looking more than a little perturbed by Caroline's mood.

"I'm just really happy for him," Caroline said, nervously pushing the plate of slightly-odd smelling salmon she had forced on Annie's mother a little closer to her. "You should really eat that before it gets cold."

"I'm not really-"

"Eat it." Caroline felt very adamant about this. Mrs. Spadaro, looking truly frightened, cautiously reached down and took a small fork-full of salmon.

"It's good," she said timidly.

"Isn't it? I tasted it and just knew we had to get this caterer. She went to high school with me and Randy, you know. She catered our high school reunion and Randy was so impressed with the food he tracked her down and thanked her personally. Little Lily Watson, what are the odds? Have another bite." Mrs. Spadaro obediently stuffed another pink lump in her mouth.

"I just wanted to stop by and... well, me and some of the other guests were talking, and... Caroline, there's no easy way to say this: we have to go back to New York."

"You and how many of the other guests?" Caroline asked, her voice becoming just a little bit louder.

"Well... all of them. I mean, the guests from New York. We have lives, you know, and jobs, and, well, I did sing at the ceremony, I mean the first ceremony, and I practiced a lot for that, and now my voice is kind of strained, and-"

"It's alright," Caroline said, her tone not changing in the least. "I understand. I can't keep you here. It's really not fair to you."

"Well... exactly," Mrs. Spadaro replied, looking taken aback that Caroline was taking this so well.

"Well, I shouldn't keep you. You must have a flight to catch and I wouldn't want you to miss it."

"Thank you, Caroline," Mrs. Spadaro replied, looking relieved. "The others will be so happy that you're OK with this."

"Yes, yes. Well, have a safe journey home," Caroline said, wondering what exactly she was saying because she seemed to have been switched to autopilot.

"What was all that about?" Randy asked, coming in from the kitchen. He had been on the phone with the airline, who had kindly informed them that, no, they would not refund his and Caroline's tickets to Hawaii, and that changing the dates would cost them a much larger sum than he cared to think about.

"All my friends are going home," Caroline said, now bringing the mostly-uneaten salmon back to the kitchen. Randy was a little put off by the painful smile on her face. Caroline dumped the salmon into the garbage and began to scrub the plate under the faucet, so hard that it was actually a near-miracle it didn't shatter. "I understand. I can't expect them to put their lives on hold for my wedding." Suddenly, a pair of strong arms laced themselves around her shoulders, encircling her. She felt Randy pull her against his back, and felt the reassuring beat of his heart against her.

"You love me, right?" he asked in her ear.

"How can you even ask me that?" she said, turning so that she could look into his eyes. And she did love him. She loved how reliable he was, his muscular arms that held her tight in the early days when she felt as if she had been slowly dying without Richard, and the smile that could endure anything. She loved how he looked at her like she was the only woman in the whole world, she loved how caring he was with his patients. Richard wasn't any of those things. Richard kept secrets and let her down. She could still remember how horrified she was when she had found his unsigned divorce papers, ones he had never even talked about once with her. Richard could barely stand other people, let alone pretend to care about them. Most of the time he couldn't even wait for people to be out of earshot before proclaiming them to be idiots. He had clashed with people, like Caroline's very best friend Annie. Randy never clashed with people. He was so easy-going, so simple. There was no doubt in her mind. She had made the right choice.

"And I love you. More than anything," he said, now nuzzling into her short hair, so his lips brushed against her ear. "Screw these people. We love each other, that's what counts. We'll get married. So it won't be a big wedding. We already had one of those. It'll be small, you and me and our parents, maybe a few friends. Everything will work out, because nothing can touch us."

There was a loud knock on the door, but neither of them made any move to go get it. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her face into her chest. She then got up on her toes, just like the first time, and brought her lips to his. And just as they were coming together, the loud knock sounded once again.

"Ignore it," Randy whispered.

"It could be important," Caroline replied, thinking of all the other parts of their wedding that could possibly fall through at this point.

"Who cares, we'll deal with it later," Randy said, digging his fingertips into her hips, pulling her closer (if that was even possible). But the kiss wasn't to be. The knock became even more urgent, and they broke apart, knowing that their romantic moment was officially destroyed.

"Coming!" Randy called, jogging into the next room, shaking the moment off him like it hadn't happened. She was always impressed by how quickly he adapted to new situations. Just another item to add to the list of 'pros' associated with Randy. She hadn't found a 'con' yet. "Just one-" Randy's voice stopped short. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Who is it?" Caroline asked, but by his tone she already knew exactly who it was.

"I'm sorry," Richard said. He was standing in the front doorway, with Stephano asleep in a stroller next to him. He looked about as happy to be there as Randy was. "But I-" And before he could complete his sentence, a car drove past, and a man stuck his head out the side window.

"No one attacks one of our own and gets away with it!" the man yelled, and then to add emphasis, started throwing little stones at Richard's head. He must have had excellent aim, because most landed with ease.

"Hey, there's a kid here!" Richard yelled back, shifting defensively in front of the stroller. "Where did he even get those stones, did he actually collect those before he got here?"

"Richard, what is going on?" Caroline asked, but before he could answer a pedestrian walked by, spitting at Richard fiercely and then hitting him with her pocketbook.

"Mrs. Collins, what was that for?" Caroline demanded.

"For running down Monsignor Mackatee! He should be thrown in jail, for what he's done!" She cried, with astonishing energy for a woman who was well into her eighties.

"For the last time, It. Was. An. Accident! How many times do I have to say it before someone believes me!" Richard yelled back. Mrs. Collins just scowled and walked away.

"You'd better get inside before a mob forms," Caroline said, ushering Richard and the stroller into the house. "What happened?"

"The backwoods hicks in this godforsaken place have lost their minds," Richard shot back, bolting into the living room and pressing himself against a wall so he couldn't be seen through the window. "Are they gone? I saw an eight-year-old with a sling-shot and shifty eyes."

"No one's there, Richard," Randy said, through gritted teeth. Caroline wondered if he had actually looked outside, or if he just wanted to push Richard back out into the line of fire. "Why are you here?"

And then Richard told them the story of his own disastrous morning, which was arguably worse than theirs. It had all begun when he had returned from the hospital to find his overnight bag and some loose personal items lying on the front lawn of the bed-and-breakfast where he had been staying.

"What's going on?" he yelled, stomping up the front driveway. But he had not found himself facing the half-senile old owner. Instead, he was met with a three-hundred-pound, six-foot-five behemoth in the doorway. He took a few steps back.

"You tried to kill Montsignor Mackatee," the man grunted.

"It was an accident! Ask the police if you don't believe me!" Richard cried out, but with all these accusations even he was beginning to wonder whether he had done it on purpose.

"You dirty scoundrel!" and here the old lady peaked out from behind the man. "We all know you did it to get that nice Duffy girl all to yourself!"

"By killing a minister? If I wanted Caroline, I would've killed Randy!" Richard yelled out, and realized that Del's flawed reasoning sounded just as crazy here as it had in the hospital earlier.

"We all knew you were up to no good! I told Bob, didn't I? I told you some New York Fella came here with murder in his eyes. I said that, didn't I, Bob?"

"Yeah," Bob affirmed, with a nod.

"So you're throwing me out? Isn't there some law against that?"

"Nope," she replied, with a snide grin. "I can do whatever I want."

From there, Richard was left to pick through the mess of his things. He had no phone, and he already had a sneaking suspicion that he wasn't going to receive much help from the people in town. Best of all, the tires of his car had been slashed, so wherever he was going, he was walking. He knew of only one place he could go, that he knew the location of and had some chance of finding (from his previous stay there). So, after a long, arduous walk with Stephano in the stroller, Richard had finally reached the house. Along the way, he had been hit, spit on, and screamed at by pretty much the entire population of Peshtigo.

"I don't understand why I can't get through to these people!" Richard said in a very angry whisper. He was still terrified the people outside would overhear him and break down the door to get to him.

"Maybe we should make you a sign and put it around your neck. It'll just say, in big black letters 'It was an accident'," Caroline said, with a small smile. A smile, for Richard? He could hardly believe it. But it was gone before he could even allow its warmth to wash over him.

"You should go back to New York," Randy said, and to his credit he did seem to be trying very hard to keep his voice steady. "You'll probably be safer. In fact, I'll call the airline and make the arrangements. Don't worry about a thing." Seeming to warm to this idea, Randy marched into the next room, grabbing a phone and happily dialing the airline he had hung up on just a few minutes before.

Caroline and Richard stood in silence, listening to the faint sound of Randy's voice through the door.

"Not one flight! For two days! What the hell... booked? By who? I want to talk to your manager-"

"I'm sorry," Richard said, breaking the awkward silence.

"You already said that. But you can say it again if you want," Caroline said, with that little glint of a smile. He knew he still had no chance, that he had blown all his chances with her, but it was nice to know somewhere in her there were enough warm feelings to let him have these few smiles.

"And I'm sorry for calling them 'backwoods hicks'. You live here now, so I guess you're one of them."

"That wasn't much of an apology," Caroline said, but she didn't sound angry. She sounded slightly amused. She was, in fact. When Richard had first come to Peshtigo, his snide remarks had made her furious. But now she felt like it was just another check-mark in the 'con' list. Richard seemed to be all 'cons' today. And yet, there was something still bothering her, that amorphous gray in the very back of her mind was still there, something she couldn't quite put her finger on. She looked at him, truly looked at him, trying to figure out what it was, but before she could come to any conclusions, Randy banged in from the next room.

"They're completely booked _for three days_! Can you believe this? And not one hotel in town will take him! We'll have to drive him to the airport, and he can wait on standby-"

"No," Caroline said, barely able to figure out what her mouth was doing, without her permission. "He has a child, Randy. He can't be waiting around the airport for days. He'll just have to stay here."

Perhaps that was the only thing she could have said that gave both Randy and Richard the same expression: one of pure shock. And suddenly Caroline realized what a tremendous mistake she had just made.


	8. Chapter 8: Richard and the Old Job

"She's just doing this because she's Caroline. She can't say 'no' to anyone," Richard proclaimed, pacing nervously back and forth across the small guest room. He kept awkwardly pulling at the clothes he was wearing, which were several sizes too big. They were, in fact, Randy's. To say Randy wasn't pleased about lending his clothes to his fiancee's ex-fiance was probably an understatement. Caroline had been talking about digging around in the garage for her old crib, when she had looked over at Richard and asked if those were the only clothes that he had. He had had an extra shirt, but that had conveniently been dumped in mud earlier that morning. And so Randy had grudgingly handed over his rattiest flannel shirt and jeans, which looked like they were more useful as rags than garments. "She's just being nice. She's always so nice. I could probably convince her to let me stay here for weeks. You think I could do that?" Richard sighed sadly. "The old me would've done it. Where did all these ridiculous morals come from?" Stephano, Richard's captive audience, gurgled happily and shifted in his carrier. "And I'm talking to an infant, so maybe I've gone crazy and this is an elaborate dream my mind has created to torture me."

Richard turned to the door. He knew, eventually, he was going to have to face the music. He was used to bringing darkness to rooms he entered, he'd just never been so uncomfortable about it. But he had been in here for forty-five minutes, and any longer might become awkward. More awkward. If that was possible. Picking up Stephano in one arm, he walked out into the living room ready for whatever was thrown at him. But he found it empty. Then, somewhere upstairs, he heard voices.

"He is NOT going to be here for the wedding. I don't care if I have to drive him back to New York myself."

"Randy, it's not his fault!"

"Not his fault! He showed up at OUR wedding, uninvited, and then hit Monsignor Mackatee with a car. How is this _not_ his fault?

"It was an accident! And he didn't want to be seen! He's in a difficult situation. But in a few days he'll go back to New York, and then we'll get married. I promise. I love you, Randy. Don't let this ruin anything else." Richard didn't want to listen anymore. He had become a burden to Caroline. Maybe he always had been. He knew, at that moment, that his goal was to get out of this backwoods hellhole as quickly as possible, to clear the way for Caroline's happiness. More than ever, he missed old, selfish Richard. Because old, selfish Richard would have taken advantage of this situation. Caroline and Stephano had ruined him.

He was about to return to his room to wallow in self-pity for a little longer, maybe plan a new painting, when his eye caught on something in the next room. A feeling of nostalgia washed over him as he approached it: Caroline and Richard's work desk. He supposed it wasn't his any longer, had never really been his, but it still gave him a strange feeling at the pit of his stomach, to see it here once again.

"Stephano, this is where your dad fell in love with Caroline Duffy," Richard said, touching the edge of the desk. It was just the same, not a pen out of place. Only the location was wrong. His mind flashed back to the early days with Caroline, when this desk represented his rock bottom. His work was unappreciated, he was in a job he was highly overqualified for, and working on comics that he didn't even consider real art. Every day was like a torture, another reminder of how he had failed in all his goals. But then there had been her. At first she had made it all so much worse. She always wanted to talk about her life, about her problems, and having a chatty, overly-cheerful woman across the table hadn't made his situation any better. When was the first day he had been excited to come to work? Maybe he couldn't pinpoint it. But some time in that first year, like some disease growing in his gut, his resentment had been infected by some strange feeling he could only describe as joy. Not that he liked the job any better. He still hated that. But he had so many fond memories now. Looking up and seeing Caroline absorbed in some work. Despite what he thought, he knew she took her job very seriously. It was one of the things he admired most about her. He remembered getting frustrated when he couldn't find just the right shade of blue, and how she would laugh at him. He remembered watching her with boyfriends across this desk: Del, then the veterinarian who looked like a high-schooler, then Trevor. He remembered in the days when he was still married to Julia, when he and Caroline had had an unspoken love lingering over them. Sometimes, their eyes would catch over the desk and they would both have to look away immediately before anything happened. And then, when something finally did happen, and they could hold those looks. He remembered smiles over this desk. His mind lingered on the day he had finally signed his divorce papers. He had been dreading it for months, putting it off. It wasn't that he wanted Julia back, he was happy to be rid of her. But it was his biggest failure, the biggest black mark in a list of black marks. And how could he be worthy of Caroline, with a list like that? But when he had finished a fight with her, had finally signed the papers, she had climbed over the desk and kissed him, and he had known that it was all going to work out. Stephano reached out to touch the desk with his little fingers. Alright, maybe things hadn't worked out exactly to plan.

It was then that Richard's eyes finally fell on the thing Stephano was reaching for, something that made his feel nauseous and horrified at the same time.

"Caroline!" Richard called out, taking the thing in his free hand and stomping back into the living room. "Caroline!"

"What?" Caroline asked, running down the stairs, Randy a few steps behind.

"What is this? Is this a sketch?" Richard asked, waving the paper in the air. "This is just a draft, right? Or a joke?"

"No, that's one of the new Christmas cards," Caroline explained. She couldn't understand why Richard looked like he was about to become hysterical.

"You haven't sent this yet? Then there's time," Richard breathed a sigh of relief.

"What's wrong with it?" Caroline asked, taking it from his hands and looking it over. Were words misspelled? Was there an ugly smudge? But it looked just fine to her eyes. She squinted. What was she missing?

"So you actually made this?" Richard asked, in horror. "_You_ made this, and not a child? A drunk child?"

"Betsy helped," Caroline replied, still trying to figure out what was wrong with the picture. She must be missing something, but for the life of her she couldn't see it.

"Betsy?" Richard spat out the name.

"You left, Richard. What, did you forget? You weren't just my fiance, you were also my assistant. And my work didn't just stop because you left."

And that's when Caroline remembered meeting Betsy. She had been back in Peshtigo for about a month at the time, living in the house with Randy. Maybe it was the beginning of those feelings for Randy that had made her miss him during his absences when he was at work. She starting going to old friends' houses, but things had changed. They were all married now, with kids and jobs and lives. It wasn't like when she had been young. Peshtigo was different. She had had the idea in her head that she would return to her hometown and things would fall into place. But in a lot of ways, Peshtigo wasn't living up to her expectations. When Randy wasn't around, it was just her, calling up friends too busy to see her, watching television she could have watched in New York, or, if she was really desperate, going to see her parents. She loved her parents, but seeing them almost day had been a bit much, even for her. Plus, if she kept eating her mom's cooking, there was a chance she would no longer fit into any of her clothes. She needed something to do, and one day, Del had called.

"Hey, Caroline, how are you? Good, great, so, uh, when do you think you'll be coming home?" Del had asked. She knew that tone. That was the "Del under pressure" voice. It could mean only one of two things. Either Annie was sitting next to him, having forced him to make the call (which was unlikely, since Annie could easily have called herself), or his bosses were threatening him.

"I don't know, I was thinking of staying here for a while longer," Caroline said. Snow as falling outside, and the world already looked like a wintery wonderland. She couldn't believe she had spent the last two hours missing New York. Snow wasn't nearly as beautiful when it was grayed by the end of a day.

"Caroline, I don't want to push you, but your holiday was supposed to end a week ago, and the bosses wanted a new set of birthday cards, and-"

"I got it, Del," Caroline had said, excitement rising in her chest. "I'll get back to work."

"You... you will? Great, when are you flying back?"

"No, I mean, I'll work from here!"

There was silence on the other end of the phone for a long time.

"From Peshtigo?" Del had asked, sounding almost pained. "But, the bosses think that it would be best if you work here, in the office. Remember, working in a creative atmosphere with other artists, all inspiring each other, and-"

"Del," Caroline said, before he could launch into the sales pitch he had memorized to make her move into the office the first time. Then she had been reluctant as well, but ultimately she had done it, only because if she hadn't she and Richard wouldn't have gotten any work done at all. They would have been too busy wallowing in the sexual tension. But now there was no Richard, and no reason to go back to the city that reminded her so much of him. She quickly pushed that horrible aching grey area to the back recesses of her mind once more. "Tell your bosses that I work from here, or I don't work at all." She actually heard Del gulp through the phone.

And that's how Caroline had ended up in Peshtigo, working. Her desk had been reluctantly sent by Del when she insisted it was the only surface she could work on. And for about a week, she had gone without an assistant. But soon the work became too much for her, and the silence, and she was forced to put an ad in the newspaper advertising a colorist position.

She had seen a lot more people than she had anticipated. Mostly, they were middle-aged women who were told once they had a lot of talent by their middle-school art teachers. Probably the most talented candidate she had interviewed had been a teenage boy with dyed black hair and black clothes and a sullen attitude. He was just a little too familiar for her taste. And then, when she had nearly given up hope, Betsy had shown up.

Betsy was probably the most upbeat person Caroline had ever met. She was always smiling, bringing muffins she had made herself, and talking. She talked a lot. She talked about her boyfriend who she just "loved, loved, loved!" She talked about how pretty the snow was, how pretty glum gray clouds were, and how pretty icy rain was. She didn't seem to walk, but rather bounced around rooms with her pigtails bobbing up and down as she went. And this boundless excitement translated onto the page. Richard's work hadn't been dark, but there was a subtleness in the way he had colored her work. He was always careful to avoid adding too much color, to match how he filled in space with her own style, and he always knew just the right shade for any given thing. Betsy had a somewhat different tactic for coloring. She liked the bright colors, and rarely used anything more subtle than hot pink. She liked to fill every inch with solid color. Caroline found it refreshing. A new look for Caroline in the City, to reflect her own new life. It seemed appropriate.

"Do all your new cards look like this?" Richard asked, looking like he was actually going weak.

"I think it looks nice," Randy cut in, surveying the card over Caroline's shoulder.

"You learned a lot about color and design in medical school?" Richard asked snidely.

"No, I think I covered that in kindergarten," Randy replied.

"Stop it, both of you," Caroline interrupted. "Richard, I'll admit that Betsy's style is different from your's, but I don't think there's anything wrong with adding a little more color. I think it's cheerful."

"Caroline, this is way beyond 'cheerful'. This looks like someone threw up the rainbow onto your work. And maybe that's a good thing."

"What, are you saying there's something wrong with my work? How would you even know, I thought you never read my strip?"

"I worked for you for four years. Some of it was bound to get through," Richard explained. "And this isn't funny. It doesn't even make sense."

"Yes it does!" Caroline said. "See, Caroline ate all the Thanksgiving stuffing, so she says 'I'm all stuffed up!' It's funny!"

Richard was looking at her like she may have lost her mind, which he couldn't help thinking was a distinct possibility based on what he was seeing in front of him at this moment.

"You can't be making any money from this," Richard proclaimed, looking at the card again. He had to look away quickly, because it was hurting his eyes.

"Actually, my cards have been selling really well," Caroline shot back defensively. "Del will tell you. He and Annie are coming over right now." This was true. She had called them while Richard was changing in his room, because the thought of spending the evening alone with her ex-fiance and her current fiance was just a little too much for her to bear. Also, they were both flying back soon and she wanted to spend as much time with them as possible before they left. Of all the things she missed about New York (that she allowed herself to think about), she definitely missed them the most. And, as if on cue, there was a knock on the door.

"Hey!" Del said cheerfully, as he and Annie walked into the room.

"Del, my cards are selling well, right?" Caroline said, looking back to Richard, feeling superior. But the positive response didn't come. Instead, Del stayed silent, shifting awkwardly from one foot to the other. "Del? My cards _are_ selling, aren't they?"

"Well, it depends on what you mean by 'selling'," he replied, still not looking her in the eye.

"What?"

"Look, your cards haven't been selling as well as they used to," Del explained uncomfortably.

"How much have sales dropped?"

"I don't know if you could put a number on it-"

"How much?" Caroline was on the edge of yelling now.

"forty-five percent," Del finally replied.

"Forty-five percent? Why didn't you tell me?"

"I was going to, but then you got engaged and I didn't want to tell you the bad news. There never seemed to be a good moment."

"Yeah, you handled that really nicely Del," Annie said, giving him a sarcastic pat on the back.

"So the colors are bad? Because I can fix that. I'll get a new assistant, or I'll color them myself-"

"There's something else." Del was now looking very red in the face. "It's not just the colors. It's everything?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, your strip was always about a small town girl in the big city, you know, _Caroline in the City. _It's right there in the name. But since you've back, it doesn't have any spark. It's sort of... boring."

"Boring? I can fix that. I've had some new ideas lately. Maybe I can make some wedding cards... is there something else?" Del still wasn't looking up from the floor.

"My boss gave you an ultimatum. Either you get your sales up in two months, or the company will have to drop you."

"He's only giving me two months?" Caroline asked, barely able to comprehend that this was happening to her.

"Well, actually, he gave you four, but that was two months ago," Del answered. Caroline felt drained. She collapsed into a chair, trying to understand what was going on. Once, her sales had fallen only a fraction of that forty-five percent and it had seemed like she was going to lose everything she had worked for. Now here she was, on the precipice of that very situation, and it felt like her whole world was crashing down around her. Everything could change, but she had always thought that, at the very least, Caroline in the City would be there for her.

"Well, I think you should look at this like an opportunity," Randy said. Her heart leapt. Randy was always so optimistic, he'd have a plan to save the day! "After all, we're getting married now, and in a few years we'll have kids and then you'll stop working anyway. You can stop now, I make more than enough to support us both." This isn't exactly what she expected. She remained silent. Stop working? Randy said it like this was so obvious. But honestly, the idea had never even crossed her mind. What was she, without her strip?

"Caroline wouldn't do that," Richard announced. "Right Caroline? You're not going to give up your work because you're getting married."

"I don't know, I'd have to think about it," Caroline replied, lost in thought. "And since when did you start caring? You don't even consider my comic art."

"This is unbelievable. You can't be considering this!" Caroline looked up at Randy. His expression was so sincere, so caring. She was already devoting her life to him. Her own mother hadn't worked, she had stayed home with her kids. Caroline treasured her memories with her mother, how she had always been there when she needed her, how she had made her costumes for school plays and halloweens, and how she always had a home-cooked dinner on the table. Sure, her mom was a little weird, whose mother wasn't? Once, her mother had put little raison nipples on the gingerbread men at Christmas. A little strange, sure, but that was her mother. She could give her own kids memories like that. Could she devote herself fully to them, if she had to work as well? "Caroline, can I talk to you?" Caroline looked up. Del, Annie, Randy, Richard, and even little Stephano were all staring at her. Richard was speaking. "Can I talk to you _alone_. I mean, without Doctor Fix-It."

"No way, whatever you have to say to her, you can say in front of me," Randy cut in angrily.

"No, it's fine," Caroline said, standing numbly from her chair. "We'll just be a second."

Richard was about to go to the door, when he looked down at Stephano. His arms were starting to ache, and he was so angry he was beginning to worry about his child's safety when he was in this state.

"Here," Richard said, handing Stephano to Annie. To his dismay, she seemed the most capable of the three.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" Annie asked, looking at Stephano like he was a strange creature and not a baby.

"Don't drop him, you'll be fine," Richard replied shortly. He turned back to Caroline, and walked off. He stomped into the kitchen, throwing the doors open so violently they came swinging back around and almost hit him in the face. But he managed to get inside, and once there, turned to Caroline, who seemed totally lost in her own head.

"Caroline, I can't stand by and watch you throw away your life's work," Richard said angrily.

"Since when did you care about my life's work? It's just a silly comic strip-"

"I know what I said!" Richard yelled. "But don't give up because you're trying to spite me."

"This has nothing to do with you. Like Randy said, we'll have kids in a few years-"

"You work from home."

"But I don't want my kids to remember me as that person working at a desk all day. I want to be involved in their lives! I want to play games with them, and help them with their homework, and cook big meals for them..."

"Caroline, speaking as someone who worked for you, I can tell you that you do not work all day. And if you have kids, you won't be able to ignore them. I know you, Caroline. You don't have to give up what you love to be a good mother."

"I don't think I can remember you ever being this supportive," Caroline said, with an edge of suspicion. Richard was always snide and rude, why was he encouraging her?

"I just know what it's like to be a parent. And I know you. No matter what, you'll be there for your kids. But the Caroline I know wouldn't just give up."

"Stop being so positive, Richard. It's scaring me," Caroline said, with a smile.

"Well, even if you work really hard, you'll probably still lose your strip, and either way you'll still be in Peshtigo. If you ask me, that's a fate worse than death."

"I have to think about it," Caroline replied, suppressing a smile. The Richard she remembered. Just like old times, except, not really.

Caroline pushed through the door, and heard a squeal on the other side. Annie stumbled backwards, rubbing her ear. Since they had left, Stephano had moved to Del's arms, who was bouncing him up and down in a manner only a man with absolutely no children could manage. Randy was avoiding her gaze, looking guilty because he had clearly been eavesdropping on her and Richard.

"I'm going to my room to think. Don't kill each other before I get back," Caroline announced, as Richard came out of the kitchen after her. Richard, noticing that Del had somehow gotten his hands on his child, took Stephano back defensively. They now all stood around awkwardly.

"So who's up for a game of scrabble?" Annie asked, in a faked cheerful tone. "Or we could all stand here in uncomfortable silence. That works too." Richard hoped, beyond anything else, that Caroline came back soon. Because no matter how awkward things had been when she was there, hanging out with Randy (and Del and Annie, who looked like they would rather be anywhere else) without her was worse.


	9. Chapter 9: Randy and the Epic Love Story

Once, Randy had fallen asleep in the library of his high school, and had accidentally missed the bus to a game against his school's biggest rival, Green Bay. He had awoken in a panic but it was too late; not only had the bus already left, but by the time he collected his gear and found a ride, the game would be over. To say his teammates had been annoyed would be an understatement. They were furious. None of them would talk to him, they pretended not to see him when they passed him in the hall. His lab partner refused to say a word for a two hour Chemistry class. The school as a whole hated him, too, and venomous whispers followed him wherever he went. Even Caroline, who had been his girlfriend at the time, cancelled a date they had. It was the most uncomfortable thing he had ever experienced. That is, it was until that afternoon, when he sat in silence with Richard, Annie, and Del struggling to find something, anything to say to make this day pass faster.

"So... you do art?" Randy asked awkwardly, shifting uncomfortably in his chair and staring very pointedly at the floor.

"I don't 'do' art, I'm an artist," Richard replied snidely. "In fact, two of my pieces "Misery Number 19" and "Endless Void" are currently on display in a 'promising new artists' exhibit'."

"They sound... upbeat," Randy responded awkwardly. Then the room fell into silence again. In the silence, Stephano shifted comfortably in Richard's arms and let out a little sigh as he drifted off.

"Maybe I should put him down for a nap," Richard said. Really, it was an obvious excuse for him to leave the room as quickly as possible, and everyone was perfectly happy to let him take it. He rushed out of the room with the speed of a cheetah, and the second he was gone it was like a weight had been lifted off the room.

"I always knew Richard could bring happiness to a room, just by leaving it," Annie said, stretching out and looking more relaxed.

"Come on, you have to feel a little bad for the guy," Del commented.

"Bad for him? He's trying to sabotage Caroline's relationship with Randy. He's like the anti-cupid," Annie said.

"Well, he's not coming in between me and Caroline," Randy said, though he wasn't totally sure this was the truth. "In a few days he'll be gone, and me and Caroline will have our wedding and we'll never see him again."

"Man, that's impressive," Del said. "I really respect you. I mean, I don't know if I could have stayed in the same house with one of my girlfriend's exes, especially _Richard,_"

"What do you mean?" Randy asked. Admittedly, he didn't know much about Caroline and Richard's relationship. He knew they had been engaged, and that they had broken up because he hadn't wanted kids, although it turned out he already had one. Randy had met Richard in New York when he had come to visit Caroline, when those very early sparks were flying and she couldn't admit it out loud. He saw Richard as something that was holding Caroline back. He imagined that, soon enough, she would move back to Peshtigo as she clearly wanted to do, and he might have a real shot with her. They had dated before, after all, a long time ago. Their chemistry was undeniable. He had seen Caroline several weeks after the break-up with Richard, and she had seemed fine. She didn't smile as much, but she rarely mentioned Richard and, a few weeks after that, they had started dating and he had stopped being concerned. Richard had been an obstacle, he told himself. Richard had been holding her back from what she really wanted: a life in Peshtigo with a home, surrounded by family. She wanted the life Randy could give her, and Richard could not. It seemed simple enough. But in that moment, it had struck him that the tone of Del's voice had been ominous. Richard wasn't just an ex-boyfriend, he was something else.

"Come on, the Richard and Caroline Epic Love Story would be intimidating to anyone, and... Annie, stop kicking me!"

Annie was looking away uncomfortably.

"They had an epic love story? I mean, I know they dated for about a year, and that he worked for her for four. Was there something going on between them earlier?" Annie and Del were exchanging looks, clearly having a silent debate.

"Randy, I don't want you to worry. It's really not that big a deal," Annie said, giving him a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "There were some feelings, but in the end they didn't work out. That's all that matters."

"If it doesn't matter, why won't you tell me? I mean, I know she dated Del, and I'm fine with that." This was true. At first, Randy had been taken aback to learn how close Del and Caroline had come to getting married. He hadn't even known they had dated, let alone that it had been for several years, and that they had been so serious. But once he got to know Del a little better, he understood why Caroline had told Randy not to view him as a threat. Del was likable enough, but he had been married multiple times before and didn't seem like the long-term commitment type. Now he was with Annie, who seemed as allergic to commitment as he was. "I think I can handle hearing about Richard. I might as well know what happened between them. I'm going to be married to her, I should know her past relationships."

Del looked reluctant, but finally he started speaking, despite fielding dirty looks from Annie.

"Well, Caroline and I had been dating on-and-off for years before she hired Richard. And even though we got back together and I proposed, everything changed," Del explained carefully. "It was like the two of them were a team, and I was just watching from the sidelines."

"But that was years before they dated," Randy said, trying to construct the timeline in his head. Three years, to be exact.

"Right, well, after Caroline and I almost got married, Richard decided he was going to go to Paris to become a well-known painter, but for some reason he didn't tell Caroline." At this point, Randy's eyes shifted to Annie, who suddenly tensed up and looked out the window.

"Is there something else?"

"Well... he didn't just _leave_," Annie said, picking at her fingernails. "You see, I found this letter from Richard to Caroline. Right before the wedding, he told her that if she felt anything for him she should meet him at Remo's, because he was in love with her. I was going to tell Caroline but you two broke up and Richard begged me not to say anything."

"You never told me that," Del said.

"Well, we're not dating. I don't share everything with you. I have lots of secrets," Annie said defensively, although Randy noted that for a couple 'not dating', they were sitting awfully close together, with Del's arm absent-mindedly draped over Annie's shoulders and Annie leaning in to his chest unconsciously.

"Then what happened?" Randy asked. He knew he was making a huge mistake, that eventually Caroline would share this story with him and that all he was doing now was forcing them to tell a story that hurt no one but himself. But he couldn't stop himself.

"When he ran out of money, he came back. Then he and Caroline seemed to be getting closer, and she told me she was falling in love with him," Del explained. "But then Julia showed up."

"Stephano's mother," Randy said, doing the math quickly in his head.

"Exactly. And Richard married her in about two seconds. And she wasn't even pregnant yet!" Annie said, throwing her hands up disgust.

"But he and Caroline were still in love with each other."

"Yeah, Caroline even left Richard a message telling him she loved him, but Richard's spawn-of-Satan ex-wife deleted it. Then I realized something had to be done, and I told Richard the truth."

"I thought you said you were drunk and it was an accident."

"No one asked you, Del. Anyway I told him. After that, they got closer and closer. Then Richard was supposed to leave with Julia to go to Spain, but at the last minute he changed his mind."

"Oh, and there was Trevor! She was dating him, but then she accidentally told Richard that Julia was cheating on him even though she wasn't, and to fix the mix-up she ran off to Spain to tell him the truth."

"What happened to Trevor?"

"He broke up with her. Would you stay with a woman who ran off to another country to see a man you suspected she was in love with?" Del asked.

"Then me and Caroline went to Spain, we saved Richard from being trampled by bulls, and he realized he was in love with her. He followed her back to New York, and then they got together."

It sounded like a great love story, except it involved Caroline and some other guy. Some other guy, who was in the next room after effectively ruining Randy's wedding.

Randy sat there for a long time, trying to process the story he had just heard. He hadn't liked Richard. He'd wanted to get rid of Richard. He was annoyed enough at his presence to want to punch him in the face every second he saw him. But until now, he hadn't been terrified of him. He remembered the look on Caroline's face when she had seen him in the church. At the time, he thought the shock of seeing someone after so long who had once meant so much to her, in addition to some illness she might have been fighting off, had caused her to collapse. But now he wondered, was that all? And now Richard was in the house with them. Would she realize she had some underlying feelings for him, just like she had realized she had underlying feelings for Randy back in New York? The only thing he knew for sure was that Richard had to be gotten rid of as quickly as possible. Maybe Randy could call in a few favors and get one of his old friends to drive Richard back? Surely one of them owed him a big enough favor for that?

He had finally settled on his friend Greg. Greg had had a nasty-looking mole on his... well, underside. He also didn't have any insurance. Randy had removed it for free, and now Greg owed him. Plus, Greg's car was pretty crappy, so it would prove to be an uncomfortable ride for Richard. He was about to go into the next room to make the call, when he heard footsteps, and Caroline came down the stairs. She looked frazzled, but determined.

"I have to save her," she said, as Randy put his hands on her shoulders to try and calm her down.

"Who?"

"Caroline. I have to save _Caroline in the City._ I have to try, at least."

"But Caroline-"

"You don't understand! Randy, when I first started, it was at a time I felt so lost. I had just moved to the city, I had no idea what I was doing. She gave me a sense of purpose. Whenever I saw things, I wanted to run home and draw them." Caroline shook off Randy's hands, and began pacing back and forth across the room, as she clearly had been doing upstairs. "And I know it might be too late, but I can't let it end like this. And I have to start right now, if I want to bring my sales up in the next too months."

"OK," Randy said. His own plans for their future would have to change accordingly, but he could see that this was important to her. He wouldn't deny her a chance to save her beloved comic strip. "I'll call Betsy right now, and-"

"Don't call her." Randy's stomach sank. He hadn't noticed that Richard had joined them. "Caroline, if you want to save _Caroline in the City_, you can't call the person who helped you create... _that._" He shuddered as his eyes fell on the technicolor disaster, still sitting on the coffee table.

"I can't ask you to do that, Richard," Caroline said, though she seemed to be gravitating towards him as she spoke, literally being drawn in by his words.

"You can't do this alone," Richard replied.

"I'll help her!" Randy cried out, before he could stop himself. It couldn't be that hard. It was just coloring in her drawings, right? But from the look on Caroline's face, Randy already knew his ill-thought-out plan to stop this disaster-in-the-making wasn't meant to be.

"Randy, I know you mean well, but..."

"Stick to shooting little kids up with drugs. That's what you're good at," Richard cut in. Did Randy see a little sneer on Richard's face?

"But you need to go home, don't you?"

"We have a few days. I can stay as long as you need. But I'll need-"

"A crib. And a baby monitor, right? And diapers. Annie and Del could go get supplies, right?"

Del and Annie, who had been watching this entire scene in a sort of shocked silence, exchanged worried looks. But they agreed, since Caroline was their friend, and soon she would live in Peshtigo and they would barely see her.

"The supplies are a little different. I couldn't get the same type of markers, but I think these should be OK." By now Richard and Caroline had moved to the desk, and were looking through her work supplies. Richard grimaced as he examined the new markers.

"I'll make do," he said begrudgingly. "And we can dispose of these," he continued, taking the bright colors strewn across the desk. "I won't be needing them."

Randy suddenly knew exactly what Del had meant when he had said that he was on the sidelines, looking in. From the way they spoke, it was like no time had passed at all. And all Randy could do was hope that this only extended to their work. That's what his rational mind was saying. The irrational part of his mind was thinking about running Richard down with a car, but unlike Richard's accident, Randy would be driving full speed, and no one would have to wonder whether or not he had done it on purpose.


	10. Chapter 10: Caroline and Memory Lane

Of course Caroline kept all her work; she had them filed in neat photo albums, divided by date, type (greeting card, newspaper, etc.), and bookmarked by theme. But she had a special box with her favorites. These were the most memorable, like her very first Caroline in the City draft, before her style had clearly defined itself. But it had been good enough to catch some attention, to get her a place as an assistant to another cartoonist, and from there to quickly establish herself in her own right. She had some that she drew corresponding to important life events: the week she had moved into her first apartment, the beginning (and end) of her relationship with Del, and of course the early days when Richard had begun to work for her. Some she just really liked, like one she had drawn showing Caroline agonizing over buying a hat, which she had loved so much she had drawn several more extremely similar ones. And, of course, inside the box were her first milestones: her 100th, 500th, 1000th, and finally, 2000th. The 2000th was at the very top of the box, the last one in before she had sealed it off and stuck it under her bed and not looked at it.

She clearly remembered the last time she had leafed through this box. It was around the time she had had a big party to celebrate her 2000th strip. She hadn't finished it in time; she had spent days dreading it, putting it off and panicking about it. Only Richard had been able to sooth her. She had felt blocked, and she had believed it was because her creativity and inspiration had dried up now that she had lived in the city so long that it no longer shocked and intrigued her. But Richard, always able to see through her, had pointed out that her inspiration came from her life, not the city. And so the 2000th strip, sitting on top of all the others, was based on the thing that had inspired her most at the time: Richard. Their first date. Richard had helped her transfer it from the laundry machine she had sketched it on to paper, and arrive at the party just before the guests were all about to go home. She could still see Richard standing across from her at the desk, his white shirt stained black from the 'suit' he had been wearing (apparently made from soy products), quickly coloring in her work as Del had a near panic attack in the background about how late they were.

Later, when she had received her copy from the printers, Caroline had opened the box up to add this new, special strip to her collection. But she had gotten stuck on the box, as she always did: running her fingers over each of the drawings, watching her own progression. She could see how her work had evolved, from thin, unsure lines to the thick black marks she now made, the marks of a confident professional. Richard's work was exactly the same throughout; he had never had a problem with confidence in his work, unless having too much of it was a problem, and had already been overqualified when he had arrived on her doorstep five years ago. Her first assistant, who she had adored, didn't seem to compliment her own work quite as well.

But she wasn't thinking about drawing the 2000th strip, or even her progression as an artist. She was thinking about that night after she had placed the strip in that box. That night she had tried to sleep, she'd tossed and turned for hours to no avail. Finally she had gotten up, sliding the box out from beneath her bed and sitting on the floor, taking out all her work in chronological order and laying it out. She could just make them all out from the moonlight pouring through the window. She heard a rustling of sheets.

"Caroline?" Richard's sleepy voice had called out.

"I'm here," she had responded.

"Oh, OK," he had replied. Clearly, having made sure she hadn't gone somewhere, he was perfectly willing to go back to sleep. But Caroline, no longer having to feel guilty about waking him, couldn't stop herself from talking.

"I was just thinking about the future," she said, her eyes scanning over her work again. "Do you think about that? Richard?"

"Yeah..." It was more of a mumble than a word.

"So much has changed since the 1000th strip. That was right before you started working for me. Can you believe that? It seems like a lifetime ago. Don't you think, Richard? Richard?" There was a long pause.

"You're not going to let me sleep, are you?" Richard's voice finally asked, clearly more awake.

"No, you can sleep if you want," Caroline said. Secretly, she was hoping he would get up, but she didn't want to force him out of bed. But somehow he must have sensed that, because she heard the creak of the bed, the sound of his fumbling fingers looking for his glasses, and finally his footsteps walking around the bed. He sat down next to her in the small space between her work.

"Are you worried?" he asked. She found herself gravitating towards his heat, and he automatically put his arm around her so she could lean in to him. His fingers absent-mindedly caressed her hair, which had been shorter then.

"No, I'm just thinking about what will be different. How our lives will have changed. Will I have a new assistant?"

"Caroline, if you're 3000th strip comes around and I'm still your assistant, I may have to bid adieu to this cruel existence," Richard said, with a little smile. She hit him lightly on the shoulder.

"Don't say that!" she said, retreating a little away from him. He had always made jokes like that, and before they had started dating she hadn't paid them much mind. It was just part of his quirky, dark personality, something she found mildly entertaining, in context. But once they had crossed that line from friendship to something more, the jokes had begun to irk her. Maybe because some tiny part of her was always concerned he wasn't totally kidding. But his expression was reassuring. He pulled her in close again, tipping her chin up so that she was looking him in the eye.

"Caroline, I don't know where we'll be when that happens, but I promise that when the time comes, I'll come down to the laundry room and help you with your writer's block." She felt her heart beat faster. For all his cynicism and melancholy, Richard really did know what to say in these situations. She leaned forward, eliminating the distance between them and catching him in a kiss. It was meant to be an end to their conversation, an invitation for him to go back to sleep. He clearly had other ideas. He pulled her in even closer, and they gently descended to the ground.

"Richard we're on top of _Caroline_! We should clean up before..." But Richard evidently wasn't listening. He was creating a trail of kisses down her neck towards her collarbone, and she was finding it increasing hard to form coherent words. He was using one hand to support his weight, and the other was beginning to inch its way up the big shirt that she was fond of sleeping in (it was a relic from her relationship with Del, an over-washed college t-shirt. It had long since lost all sentimental meaning, but remained one of her most comfortable pieces of clothing).

"I love you," he whispered into her ear, and the words sent shivers through her.

"I love you too," she had replied.

"Oh! I didn't realize you were up!" Richard voice said from behind Caroline, causing her to jolt out of her memory and back into reality. "I see you've gotten out 'the box'. Feeling nostalgic?"

"Yeah," she said, not feeling the need to explain which memories she had been recalling. "Actually, I'm looking at these because of what you and Del said. I'm trying to recapture the feeling of my older work." Here, Richard sat down next to her. After reliving the memory of that night, it seemed almost unnatural that he put so much room between them, that his arm didn't ease itself over her shoulder, that he seemed almost to be leaning away from her. She was having a hard time looking at him directly, so instead she looked at her work. It had been a long time since she had looked at it. She used to go over these quite often, if she was feeling sentimental or blocked in some way. But after Richard had left they had just been added to the list of things that were a painful reminder of him. She had even thought about leaving them in New York when she came back to Peshtigo, with the rest of the things she could no longer stand to look at directly without feeling ill for him. But at the last minute she had grabbed the box and added it to the pile of things being shipped to Wisconsin. She had to remember that she had had _Caroline_ longer than she had had Richard, that they were separate despite their years-long connection and that she had to reclaim her work from that failed relationship. But it had still been too hard to look through the box and see Richard's handiwork, even though she was definitely happy with Randy. Yes, definitely very, very happy. She kept saying it in her head, with Richard leaning in, just a bit, to get a better look at her work.

"Isn't this the one that Del and I drew when you threw out your back?" Richard asked. Caroline grimaced at the memory.

"I kept that one as a reminder," she said, taking it from his hand and putting it back in the box, "to never let you two around my work unsupervised."

"I thought it was pretty good!" Richard exclaimed. Caroline had to admit, looking at it now, that besides the punchline she didn't understand, the art was spot-on. Richard really was talented, even she wouldn't be able to distinguish it from the others. "It's better than this one!" He picked out another from the box.

"Hey! I like that one!" Caroline said. It was one she had drawn when Richard had disappeared, secretly moving to France to try and become a professional artist. It was also around the time that she and Del had broken up for good. She had been angry and hurt that he had disappeared, and the work reflected that a little too well. The strip, which had had a story arc spanning about a week, showed Richard getting into a series of unfortunate mishaps, each more calamitous than the last. It was voted a favorite by her fans, and Del had managed to convince her to make a spin-off greeting card depicting Richard falling down a manhole, a 'get well soon' card. Richard had been less than pleased when he had returned to see it.

"I seem to be in peril in a lot of these, don't I?" Richard said, taking a handful and grimacing at each successive piece. Caroline couldn't be found totally to blame. In an online live chat, several of her fans had made clear that their favorite storylines involved 'Caroline's Weird Assistant' getting in trouble, and she was always a people-pleaser. Also, Annie always said that it was a 'healthy expression of anger', for all those times Caroline and Richard disagreed on something.

"It's not really you, Richard! It's art," she replied, knowing the phrasing would only irk him further.

"Oh, really?" he asked sarcastically, pulling out a strip in which Richard was ultimately trampled by running bulls in Spain.

"I do like that one," she said, taking it from him and examining it further. This had been the first strip she had drawn in the office Del had forced her to move into, in the very earliest days of her relationship with Richard when they were still holding off on the physical and everything was highly charged with sexual tension. She had drawn it on the first day, when it had been particularly frustrating. The strip had deviated significantly from the reality of what happened, since Cartoon Caroline and Cartoon Richard weren't together yet, but that scene, so fresh in her memory, had seemed to be calling out to her to be translated to the page. "The only other time I've seen you run that fast is when I told you your mother was coming to visit as a joke."

"Hilarious," he said dryly. "And how about this one?" he asked, his voice faltering a bit at the end. It was the last one, the 2000th, their first date. She had just been looking at it, but for him it was the first time in months, and she was sure that there was a grimace of pain. For Caroline, the last few days had been confusing. She didn't know where he was; had he completely moved on, and come to the wedding to make sure she had too? Was he still in love with her? If Stephano hadn't interrupted first, what was he planning to? Or had he really intended to sneak out? She assumed the latter, since big romantic gestures really weren't his style. And she had been so distracted trying to reassure Randy that nothing was going on, she hadn't really thought about how Richard must be handling all of this. Stuck in a place he had admitted to hating, with a baby, and his ex-fiancee and her new fiance. He was truly excellent at hiding his feelings, he always had been. He had been in love with Caroline from early on in their friendship, Annie had revealed, and Caroline hadn't been the wiser for more than a year. But in that second, when he glanced down at the depiction of their first date, from the moment he had realized she wanted a fancy dinner at a nice restaurant he hadn't booked to the end when he had gotten stuck in a vent and they had danced together on the roof despite the awkward impediment and the paramedics on their way upstairs, she saw his pain. Because no matter how strange this must be for her, she was the one getting married and he was the one forced to stay in the house and watch her happiness with another man.

Suddenly, Richard looked up from the cartoons, and Caroline realized that in her desire to get a glimpse at the emotions underneath that usually impenetrable mask she had leaned in closer. Now they were just inches apart. It was like a magnet between them. Without really intending too, both began to lean in, growing closer and closer until, just as their lips were about to touch, they were interrupted.

"Caroline?" Randy's gruff, sleepy voice called from upstairs. "Where are you?" Richard and Caroline jumped two feet apart like they had both been shocked with electricity. Neither could look the other in the eye, and they began to hurriedly pack Caroline's work back into the box.

"Sorry, Randy! I was just looking over some old _Caroline in the City_s for ideas!" Caroline called back up, trying not to sound too guilty. Her heart was pounding out of control, and she nearly jumped out of her skin when her and Richard's fingers accidentally grazed each other picking up the last cartoon, the cartoon, and putting it away.

"Come back to bed," Randy replied sleepily.

"Be right there!" Caroline called back. She turned back and found Richard holding out the box to her, also looking fairly guilty. She took the box, mumbled a quick 'thank-you', and hurried towards the stairs.

"Goodnight, Caroline," he said. She couldn't make herself turn back to face him, but she did manage to form her last words:

"Goodnight, Richard."


	11. Chapter 11: Annie and the Flight Home

Annie knew something had happened when Caroline arrived at her hotel room at seven am, asking if she and Del were ready for their flight. For one thing, their flight didn't leave until two in the afternoon. For another, they had planned to come visit Caroline one more time before they left. Annie could tell from Caroline's frantic knocks, even before seeing the strange expression on her face, that something serious was going on.

"Are you and Del ready to go? Because you know Peshtigo doesn't have an airport, and it's a forty minute drive to the closest one," Caroline said.

"Me and _Del_? You know, we're not a couple. He has his own room. Why would you just _assume_ he's here?" Annie asked defensively. She and Del were very clear about the boundaries of their relationship. Sure, it had been a while, but who was counting (She was, but that wasn't the point)? And they had wordlessly agreed to get separate rooms, though admittedly neither had actually seen what Del's looked like.

"Is Del not here?" Caroline asked, and simply by shifting her position slightly she could see very clearly that he was, awoken by her early-morning visit. She turned red as he rolled out of bed, completely naked. He looked up, and for the first time seemed to realize she was there. He, too, turned bright red, grabbing the first thing he could find (Annie's pink negligee, she realized to her horror), and hid himself.

"Hey Caroline. Didn't see you there. What's up?" he asked, clearly trying to sound as nonchalant as possible.

"Don't worry, Del. I've seen it all before," Caroline replied, though Annie could tell her heart wasn't really in it. Something was wrong.

"We'll give you a minute, Del," Annie said, then took Caroline's arm and pulled her out into the hall, closing the door behind them. "What's the matter? Did something happen?"

Caroline looked awkwardly at the floor, the walls, really anywhere besides at Annie. Just when she seemed like she might be able to say something, the door burst open and Del stood there, now wearing boxer shorts and a t-shirt.

"Sorry about that," he announced, looking somewhat frazzled. "What's up?"

"Nothing," Caroline said, and Annie could see that whatever it was (and despite what she had just said, it was obviously something), she didn't want to say it in front of Del. "Is Charlie still at the church?"

"Yeah. I offered to drive him to the hotel. I was going to let him stay in my room," Del shot a quick look at Annie, "where he could sleep on the floor because I was totally planning on staying in my room. But he really likes the church. He said it reminds him of the places he stayed in Europe." They all exchanged glances, wondering where exactly Charlie had been spending his time while he was abroad.

"Well, we should go get him!"

"Annie, doesn't our flight leave in about seven hours-"

"You can never be too late!" Caroline cut in, marching forward. Annie and Del both stared after her with matching expressions of concern, but neither said anything. They just followed close behind.

When they arrived at the church, they found Charlie being chased out by an irate nun, who managed to keep up with him quite well despite the fact that she was in her seventies and didn't have the advantage of a pair of roller-skates. Charlie nearly smashed into the car, and then threw himself into the back seat, yelling: "Drive! Drive! Drive!"

"What's going on?" Del asked as they peeled away from the church, the nun still screaming after them and shaking her fist furiously in the air.

"I don't know why she's so upset," Charlie said, straightening himself up in the seat. "I just asked if there was any room service. First she asked if I had left a home, but I told her if I had a home I wouldn't have to sleep in the church. Then she got really angry and starting yelling."

"Charlie, it's a church, not a hotel. They don't have room service," Caroline told him.

"Well, how would I know that, if I don't ask? She didn't even offer me a chocolate for my pillow."

The rest of the car ride was quite joyous in character. They shared new stories: Charlie talked about his travels through Europe, mistaking the Sistine Chapel for an art gallery, where he asked the very confused tour guide whether they cut the pictures out of the wall when they sold them, or if they sold the whole building, and who had enough money to buy the whole thing? Del talked about work at the office now that Caroline was gone, the two odd guys who drew one of their most popular strips, who had been absolutely heartbroken when Caroline had left (apparently, they both had a big crush on her), the office manager Caroline had bonded with against all odds, whose strange strip about office-supply characters had been a surprise hit for the company. Annie talked about a big audition she had the next day for the lead in another off-broadway play, and the bitchy girl whom she had been competing against for a number of roles. But all the while, Annie watched Caroline. She could tell that Caroline had something she needed to say, as she kept glancing over nervously, and part of the time it was like she wasn't even listening at all.

Without a ticket, Caroline couldn't follow them to the gate at the airport, but because they had so much time their flight wasn't even checking in yet. They sat in an open waiting area. Charlie skated happily through the wide, smooth spaces. Del sat down next to Annie, and Caroline kept making nervous chit-chat about the weather and about the search for a new venue for her wedding. Annie knew she had to do something.

"Del, can you go get me a candy bar?" she asked.

"Why didn't you get one when we stopped for soda?" Del asked. He clearly didn't understand that she was trying to get rid of him.

"I didn't know I wanted one then."

"But what kind do you-"

"Del! Just get me one, OK?" Annie announced, physically pushing him away. Del, looking very confused, stomped off grumbling about how bossy she was, and how they weren't really dating, and how he didn't need to take this from her. This left only Annie and Caroline, and Caroline finally said what she had been desperately waiting for an opportunity to say.

"Something happened with Richard last night," she revealed. Annie, who had been sipping soda, began coughing and wheezing as she apparently forgot how to swallow.

"What?" she asked, in disbelief, wiping away soda from her now-dripping face. "Did you sleep with him?"

"No! Of course not! I could never do that to Randy!"

"Then you kissed him?"

"No! Well, almost. We were looking over old _Caroline in the City_s, and there was this moment and we, well, we just _almost_ kissed."

"Did you look into his eyes? Because I swear, I think he's Satan's minion. He probably possessed you or something."

"Annie, this isn't funny! Do I tell Randy?"

"Are you insane?" Annie asked, and luckily she hadn't taken another sip of soda. "You definitely don't tell Randy. He'll get the wrong idea. Unless, well, it is the wrong idea, isn't it? Are you still in love with Richard?"

"No!" Caroline cried out, a little too quickly. "We were talking about the past and it just happened. I don't have any feelings for him."

"Caroline, you don't need to lie to me. You know me and Richie have never been on the best terms, but if you love him-"

"I love Randy," Caroline said, sounding determined. "This thing with Richard was probably just a fluke. Like when you're on a diet and you have a bad night and eat a roll of cookie dough with chocolate syrup. Not that Randy's like a diet! No, I mean, he's like the cookie dough, so Richard's like a salad..."

"So you don't have any feelings for Richard?" Annie asked. Caroline didn't say anything, just looked at her twisting hands uncomfortably. "So you do have feelings for him?"

"I think they're just residual. Like when you put a dish through the dishwasher and it still has food caked onto it," Caroline said, then her eyebrows furrowed, as she clearly tried to figure out whether what she just said made any sort of sense.

"Maybe we should just stop with the metaphors for now," Annie said, patting her on the shoulder. "So if you really feel that way, and you're sure that you really love Randy, then push those feelings down. And definitely don't tell him."

"Alright, I'm pushing them down. You couldn't even see them under a microscope! And they're not real feelings! They're leftover from before. We never really had closure, so when I marry Randy, I'll have really moved on and they'll be over with! I love Randy!" Caroline sounded enthusiastic, but Annie had an ominous feeling. After all, last time Caroline had decided that she could ignore her feelings for Richard, she had destroyed her relationship with Trevor and ended up with Richard anyway. But she knew Caroline loved Randy, and she hoped Richard and his terrible timing didn't ruin that too.

Soon after that, Del and Charlie returned, Del carrying about ten different types of candy bar, probably every kind he could find in the airport. He then proceeded to dump them all unceremoniously onto Annie's lap. Annie couldn't help but feel a little bad, but she knew how to make Del forget about things like this.

They returned to their conversation from the car, this time talking about old memories: when Annie had avoided a tax audit by secretly allowing the IRS man to join a performance of _CATS, _when Del had dangled his older brother on a hook at a greeting card show in front of a laughing audience, when Caroline had realized she was providing free cable to all her neighbors and determined she could never do anything so illegal, and had been hated ever since. There was a sense of finality about their conversation: the end of an era. They could all feel it. Soon, Caroline would return to her new (old) house in Peshtigo. Charlie would return to his trip around the Europe, since he hadn't "done Russia yet." Annie and Del would continue... doing whatever it was Annie and Del had been doing. But it would never be like it had been, back in the old days. And, of course, there was the unspoken fifth member of their group, forever relegated to a spot on the outside (though, quite frankly, Annie liked him a lot better out there).

And, in what seemed like no time, their flight was being called and they had to hurriedly check in. As Caroline stood at the security line, waving goodbye to them, her eyes welled up with tears. Annie knew what she must be thinking about: that last painful goodbye in the airport. Annie had been there, after all, when Caroline had arrived home. She remembered the look of strange calm that had washed over her best friend, like she had been completely deadened. She told Annie the whole story in a lifeless monotone, mixing a cup of tea Annie had made her but never managing to take a sip. For days, she couldn't leave the apartment. Only later did she break down into tears, cursing at Richard and saying she loved him and then wanting to call him, until Annie had to take the phone out of her apartment for fear she would actually do it out of desperation. She had seen Caroline go through break-ups before, even serious ones: Del, the veterinarian, Trevor, but nothing like this. It was so bad Annie finally called the only person she thought would make any difference: Randy. The chemistry between them was undeniable. Caroline never smiled quite like she did was Randy was around, and they were exchanging old stories about the Peshtigo football team or the year Mrs. Duffy had blown out the electricity for the whole neighborhood by decorating the house in so many lights no one could look directly at it for fear of going blind. And Randy had come to New York without a moment's hesitation, and Annie knew that she had made the right choice. After all, that was Annie's way; if a boy broke your heart, find a new boy as quickly as possible. They were practically interchangeable, really.

Annie, Del, and Charlie boarded the plane. Annie and Del had seats next to each other, but Charlie's was several rows behind them next to a middle-aged, overweight businessman. As Annie was buckling herself in, Del turned to her with a wicked little smile on his face.

"When we take off, you want to go into the bathroom and join the mile-high club?" he asked, wiggling his eyebrows in a suggestive fashion.

"We already did that on the way here,"Annie said, hitting him on the arm.

"Well, now we'll be premium members," he replied, leaning in a little and beginning to kiss her neck.

"Del, there are other people around!"

"So, that didn't stop us at the park, or in the elevator of my building, or-"

"I said no," she said, pushing him away. Usually she would get caught up in his words, or maybe even she would be the one saying them. It was hard to define exactly what she and Del were. Ever since Caroline had moved away, being around Del had been comforting. He was someone whom she had history with, who she could talk to, who she had always considered a friend. The fact that the sex was unbelievable had only been an added bonus. Whatever else she thought of him (that he was a little slow, that he was sort of a man-whore, that he was impulsive and didn't think his actions through nearly enough), she had to admit that they had a lot of chemistry in that respect. It was only in the last few months that she realized how much of her life seemed to now revolve around him. She'd sometimes wonder what he was doing during the day, why he hadn't called her to come over one night, or whether, if he continued eating like he was, he might have a heart attack and die young. Not that they were in a relationship. She reasoned that these were things that normal friends wondered too. Both she and Del went to great pains to keep the boundaries clear. They never called each other unless it was purely friendly, or a booty-call (which meant it was always the latter). He hadn't come to a performance of her play, and she hadn't attended the party Del's colleagues had thrown him when it was revealed his division had the best numbers that year (despite Caroline's lagging sales). And it wasn't jealousy she felt when she and Del had bumped into his extremely attractive secretary on the street one day. That was natural concern that, with someone so attractive nearby, he might be distracted from his work. And the fact that she hadn't been with anyone else since she and Del had started, well, whatever this was just meant that he was fulfilling her needs and she hadn't had to look for anyone else. It was that simple.

"What are you thinking about?" Del asked. Annie's heart jumped when she turned and he was so close. "Is this about what Caroline told you?"

"What? What do you know?" Annie asked defensively. She wondered if he had somehow overheard something.

"Nothing, but you'll tell me what she said," Del said, looking smug.

"I will not. That was in confidence! She's my best friend!"

"Annie, you can't keep a secret."

"Yes I can!"

"Really? Who told Richard about Caroline's feelings?"

"Well, no one asked you," Annie said, turning away slightly. But Caroline's recent information felt like it was burning a hole through her brain. What would it hurt, really, to tell Del? He was one of Caroline's best friends, and he wouldn't even be in Peshtigo. Who could he tell? She turned back towards him, and before she could stop herself, the truth blurted itself out. "Caroline and Richard almost kissed."

"What?" he asked, leaning in closer

"Apparently they were looking through some old strips last night and they almost kissed!"

"Is she leaving Randy?"

"Don't you think if she was that would be the first thing I said? No, she loves Randy."

"Right," Del replied. He turned away, towards the window. Annie caught a glimpse at his reflection.

"Are you smiling? Don't tell me you're rooting for that ray of darkness?" Annie asked, horrified. Del tried to suppress his smile, but he was failing miserably.

"I'm not rooting for anyone. I just want Caroline to be happy," Del said, and he didn't sound sincere at all. The look on Annie's face must have made that clear, because the truth poured out of him. "Look, I watched them for four years. Even when she and I were together, there was something there. All I'm saying is, if they can't make it work, none of us have a chance... not 'us', obviously," he corrected quickly, responding to her horrified look. "But, you know, people in general. Other people. Not you and me."

The flight attendants were completing their pre-flight demonstrations, and preparing the cabin for take-off. Annie felt a bit nervous, and she grabbed his hand on their shared armrest. Instead of pulling away, she felt his larger hand squeeze hers reassuringly.

"This is only because take-off makes me nervous," she told him defensively.

"I know. You'd hold hands with any old stranger. But I'm sitting next to you, so I guess you'll have to settle for me." The plane began to move, and his comforting hand was making her feel better.

"Once we're in the air, I'll go the the bathroom first and then you follow a minute behind so they don't suspect," she said, trying to look as innocent as possible.

"I'll be right behind you," he replied, with a self-satisfied smile. She quickly resisted the urge to kiss him. After all, that would be a public display of affection, and that was something couples did. And they weren't a couple. No, they definitely weren't. No, she kept saying in her head. Definitely not.


	12. Chapter 12: Richard and the Archenemy

"You," Richard growled, his eyes angry slits, his fists clenched so hard his fingernails dug into his palms. "I thought I'd never have to see _you_ again." His adversary only stared back. Was that a little grin on her face? "I should have stuck you in the microwave when I had the chance."

For whatever reason, Richard was in a particularly bad mood this morning. Maybe it was the fact that, despite being early in the fall, a veritable blizzard was blowing just outside the window. This horrid weather had set in just as he and Caroline were settling down to revamp her strip, with winds so strong that the windows rattled and an icy chill rushed through the house. The fire crackling nearby did nothing but make the bottom half of his legs feel like rapidly melting candles, while the top half continued to feel as if it was submerged in ice water. Or maybe Richard was in a bad mood because Randy had taken to following him around, whilst giving him death-stares. He never said anything. If Richard had to speak with him for some reason, Randy kept a strained, angry-looking smile on his face, accompanied with a strange, overly-cheerful tone. Maybe it was because, ever since his and Caroline's almost-accidental-kiss, she wouldn't even look him in the eyes, even though they were spending more than twelve hours a day together trying to fix _Caroline in the City._ Or maybe he was in a bad mood because Caroline's horrible cat, Salty, had just eaten half of Richard's sandwich in the time it had taken him to walk across the room and check on Stephano in Caroline's old playpen (where he was playing with the toy Richard had dropped in the church, that could be held indirectly responsible for the situation he currently found himself in). Now here Richard was, having a staring contest with the very satisfied-looking cat sitting on the desk, who dared to lick her lips.

"Here," Richard said, breaking off a piece of his remaining sandwich and tossing it into the fire. "Fetch." They cat only swished her tail and jumped down to the floor, prancing away.

"How's it going?" Caroline asked. She had gone to get more paper from the next room. While her tone was almost normal, she looked very pointedly at the floor as she spoke. This had become their normal form of communication.

"I've finished the first one," Richard explained, holding it out to her. As she took it, their fingers brushed, and he saw her flinch.

"It's good," she said, looking down at it. "Only a few hundred more to go!" To be honest, getting that one greeting card had been a struggle. He had never seen her have this much trouble coming up with a simple idea for her work. She had come up with dozens, each less funny than the last, and he had continually shot them down. He'd never been this involved in her creative process before. It was like she had become totally disconnected with _Caroline_, and much as she tried she couldn't reach her. Even this new one was only a thinly-veiled rip-off of an older one. Before Richard could try and coach her through yet another drawn-out brainstorm session, there was a ping from the next room that made them both jump, along with the automated voice: "You've got mail."

"I'll go see what that is!" Caroline cried out, rushing from the room. She often seemed to be in a big hurry to get into rooms where Richard wasn't, and away from rooms where he was. He tried not to take it too personally. He found this was a common trait among most people he had ever spent any time with. "It's the focus group information Del wanted to send over."

"Don't look at that, Caroline," Richard said, going to join her at the computer. He always found that a little strange. Caroline had a computer, or more accurately, Randy had one that Caroline used. She was just starting to get the hang of it now. Richard, on the other hand, wasn't allowed to touch it, given that last time he had gone on a computer he had become somewhat addicted and Caroline had had to drag him away by force. But he couldn't think of that now. "Do you remember last time?"

"Richard, this is an emergency!"

"Caroline, they wanted you to give _Caroline_ superpowers! And a dog!" Maybe he shouldn't fight this so much, if it meant Salty would be gone. But he had to keep himself on point.

"These are my readers, Richard, and if they're not buying my cards than maybe I should be listening to them more," Caroline said, opening the attached email document.

"Caroline, these people are idiots," Richard cut in.

"They're just regular people found from the street."

"I'm making a general point about most people," he clarified.

"There's nothing crazy in here," Caroline said, her eyes scanning the page. "I should have more stories about the city... no more wedding stuff... bring back Caroline's weird assistant."

"What?" Now Richard's attention had been caught.

"Maybe this was a bad idea," Caroline said, going to close out the window. But Richard stopped her, and the moment their hands touched he could actually feel her shiver.

"Read what it says," he demanded.

"You were right. It's all crazy stuff. Caroline should die in a car accident and come back as a zombie, Caroline should start playing a lute. What is a lute, anyway? I learned my lesson from last time. I shouldn't let this influence my work."

Richard had just been looking through the newer _Caroline_s. How had he not noticed? Richard was gone from them. Now that he had noticed, it seemed blaring. She had cut him out of her life completely, even in the pretend world of her strip. Although he already knew this, although this shouldn't hurt, he felt like he had received a very sharp kick to the gut.

"I should really put Stephano to bed," Richard said. He wondered whether she knew it was an excuse. He lifted Stephano, who didn't look even remotely tired and even wailed as Richard dragged him away from his toys. However, Stephano must have sensed his father's desperation. Richard couldn't help but feel a little better as his son rested his head on his shoulder, and sighed deeply. In the next room, Richard tucked him into the crib that Caroline had set up, with the blanket she had gotten him. At least, when this was all over, he could return to New York with something to keep him from falling backwards into his old misery. He was constantly amazed by how great an influence Stephano had on him, that he could spend his whole day thinking about him without getting bored, that there was nothing about the experience that had been even remotely negative. There was nothing else in his life he could say that about. Even with Caroline, there had been problems, jealousy and ultimatums and mismatched expectations. With Stephano, it was simple. He was the only thing Richard could take comfort in, during this horrible week when he had been confronted with the thing he wanted the most but could no longer have. And Stephano, mercifully, went straight to sleep. Richard sat down on his bed, but jumped back up as a hissing cat swiped her claws at him.

"You again," Richard said. "Why do you always-" he stopped himself. Not always. Long ago, now. This cat, who had been a constant, immovable annoyance to his existence for four, long years, had been totally absent for more than six months. If working around Caroline these last few days had taught him anything, it was that things really had changed since he had left. He remembered the first time he had been around this evil creature. It was the same time he had met Caroline, when he didn't even know her. Salty had nearly caused Richard to leave on that first day. She had jumped into his lap, and a wave of disgust had washed over him.

"Oh Great, you have a cat," Richard had said.

"Oh, this is Salty. Actually, her real name is Salt. See, I had a Pepper too, but Pepper ran away a year ago. He was a male, so, typical. And since Salt is a weird name by itself-"

"How anecdotal," Richard had interrupted. At the time, he had been too put-off by the cat to really care about her babbling. Frankly, it hadn't really been adding points in her favor. "Can you please just make it disappear?"

"I'm sorry, are you allergic?"

"No, I just don't like cats, or dogs, or anything that runs up to you and pees on your feet when you come home."

"Well, then, we may have a problem because I tend to get fairly excited when people come over," she waited for his reaction. "Not even a smile." Richard could tell that they didn't match well. Their personalities were too different. This would never work. But at the same time, he needed this job. However, Richard had one advantage: he was just morally corrupt enough to use her kindness against her. He could see right through her, from the second they had met; she was as soft as a marshmallow, one of those do-gooder types that gave more to charity than they had in their savings account and could never say no to an honest (or dishonest) request for help. And he knew, right away, that she would be fairly easy to manipulate. So he had played up his plight (though, he hadn't needed to exaggerate much), and portrayed himself as minutes from the homeless shelter. And just as he had expected, she folded immediately.

That seemed miles away from where he was now. He knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that if put in the same situation again he would do the same thing. He wasn't a totally different person, after all, and one advantage to being generally disliked was that he had learned not to care whether he was liked or not. But it seemed strange that he had looked at her like that. He would learn that she was a marshmallow, but there was so much more to her than that. She was funny, kind, naive, but smarter than she looked. She could fight for what she wanted, if she needed to. She cared so deeply for people that often she would put herself in uncomfortable positions to make sure they were happy. But she was also moral to a fault; once, all the neighbors had been stealing her cable, and she had reported it, even though everyone had hated her for it. It was odd that, for all the time he had known her, this cat had been there, always there to make their time a little less worthwhile. Even the morning after their first night together had almost been ruined by this cat.

After three years of waiting, of their loves being mistimed and mismatched, he and Caroline had finally gotten to a place where they could be together. But Caroline, in true Caroline-fashion, had become nervous. She wanted to test the waters of their relationship, instead of jumping into the physical part immediately (at least until his divorce proceedings officially began). So he had waited longer, and finally they had planned a romantic weekend getaway to a country inn. But it wasn't to be, and ultimately he had been forced to secretly call Annie and ask for help in fixing the situation. So when he and Caroline had arrived home, Annie and Del had filled the house with candles.

And then they had been together. Thinking about it made his heart race. And the next morning he had opened his eyes to the sun shining through the windows, and she had been there, her head resting against his arm. And he felt something he hadn't felt in his entire life: a lack of misery. Never had his happiness been totally untainted. He had shifted slightly, to get a better look at her, to see the way the sun reflected on her face. Suddenly he had heard a hissing noise just behind him, and had only caught a glimpse of the raised claws before they swiped several clean lines through his back.

He howled in pain, jumping from the bed and waking Caroline, who also jumped.

"THAT DAMN CAT!" Richard yelled, as he felt blood trickle down his back.

"Salty! What did you do! Bad girl!" Caroline said, but Salty didn't look very repentant. She sauntered away, her tail swishing back and forth happily. "Come on Richard, we should put a bandage on that."

She put on a robe and he boxers, and they went downstairs. There, he sat in a chair as she dabbed alcohol on the scratches.

"I don't get it," Caroline said, as she cleaned his wounds. "Salty hasn't done that with any of the other guys." Richard felt a wave of annoyance. _Other guys. _

"That cat has always had a vendetta against me," Richard reminded her.

"She can sense that you don't like her!"

"She's very intuitive," Richard replied, just he caught a glimpse of the cat jumping over the kitchen counter. "Caroline, that's not where she scratched."

"I know, but you have other scratches," Caroline said, putting alcohol on his other shoulder. "Here." He felt her fingers lightly touch his back, tracing lines down.

"Those aren't from the cat," he said, remembering where exactly they _were _from. He closed his eyes, his mind back in that moment, looking into her beautiful eyes, her nails digging into his back... but he was getting distracted. Caroline's fingers had continued down his back, now over his shoulders until he felt her lean in to him, kissing his neck. He reached up, grabbing her arm and pulling her around so that she ended up in his lap, facing him. He meant to say I love you. But instead he kissed her, their hearts seeming to beat as one. Then, in probably the most manly gesture he would ever be able to muster, he had swept her up in his arms and carried her towards the stairs. However, when he reached them she stopped him.

"Last night you fell on these stairs."

"That's true."

"So maybe I should just walk up them?"

"That's probably a good idea." And he had set her down, and she had taken his hand and they had raced up these stairs, falling into bed, not to emerge for several more days.

Richard lay back on the bed, trying to live in the memory for just a few more seconds. The warmth of her skin, her soft lips, the way she used to look at him... Did she look at Randy that way, he wondered? But once Randy was in his head, the fleeting sense of happiness he had felt recalling his memories was gone. His head tilted to the side slightly, and his heart nearly stopped as he found the cat was so close their noses nearly touched. He had totally forgotten Salty was there. In his shock, he jumped up, and his feelings of annoyance towards the creature rushed back. Salty had also been responsible for one of Richard's earliest feuds with Caroline. Not that that was the only one, or even close. Even at their best, they fought. But since, in this case, the fight had prevented Richard from having sex, it stood out from the others.

Richard was at Caroline's house watching some chick-flick movie she had insisted on. He had had last choice, she said, though he couldn't understand why she wasn't riveted by the award-winning Norwegian documentary, which used the symbol of slow, deliberate starvation to represent the meaninglessness of life. So, as she had teared up as good-looking-rich-guy-who-had-forgotten-the-importance-of-human-connection chased after good-looking-girl-with-good-sense-of-humor-who-would-remind-him-how-important-human-connection-was, Richard had tried not to think about how his brain was actually melting.

"Richard, I'm watching this," she had said, giggling, as he had tried to change the activity to something he knew he would enjoy more. His fingers were drawing little circles into her skin, and he had leaned it to kiss her neck, but apparently good-looking-man was having an epiphany and she was too distracted. "If you're really that bored why don't you go heat that up in the microwave."

"Alright." He glanced at the counter. Two things were there. The first was some left-overs that Caroline had taken out of the fridge in case they were hungry during the movie. The other was Salty, sniffing at said left-overs hungrily. Richard thought about this. She hadn't _specified_ the left-overs. He stood up, and walked over to the counter, took the cat and marched towards the microwave. He opened the door, but the cat meowed loudly and Caroline turned, jumping up in horror.

"Richard!" she cried out, rushing over and snatching Salty from his arms. "What are you doing?"

"You told me to put it in the microwave..."

"You knew what I meant!" She was petting Salty soothingly. The cat had given him a look that said very clearly: _I won. _"I think you should go."

"Come on, Caroline, it was just a little joke. Me and Salty understand each other," Richard explained. This was how he and Salty had always interacted. He threatened to kill her, she pranced away. Caroline had once seen Richard try and get Annie to throw Salty out the window, why should this be any different? But for some reason, Caroline was more upset.

"You should go," Caroline said, petting the cat. Richard, who knew he had lost, could only give her a look of annoyance, and then march out. Caroline hadn't called that night.

The next day, Richard had arrived at the office to find Caroline working diligently, only looking up to frown at him.

"OK, I'm sorry," Richard said, taking off his coat and setting himself up across from her at the desk. "I won't try and microwave your cat again."

"I don't want an apology," Caroline had said coolly.

"What can I do then?" Richard asked. This was a phrase he was almost totally unfamiliar with. He rarely offered to do things for other people. In this case, he didn't even think he was in the wrong. But he also didn't like spending too much time away from her, so if he had to suck it up and pretend to be sorry, so be it.

"I want you to apologize to Salty."

"No."

"But Richard-"

"Caroline, I'm not apologizing to a creature who doesn't even have the brain capacity to know the difference between a litter box and my coat," Richard replied.

"Well, if you won't apologize to Salty, you can't come over."

"You mean-"

"I think you know what I mean." But Richard couldn't help but laugh. "What? You don't like... you know..."

"Caroline, I think you know that's not true. I just think I'm not going to be the one who gives up first."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Caroline, remember the first day I worked for you? You and Del were doing an experiment..." Caroline frowned, but suddenly a look of comprehension spread over her face and she turned bright red.

"That was different. We were testing our relationship, to see if it was more than sex."

"You failed," Richard replied.

"Well fine then," Caroline said, suddenly gaining a wave of momentum as she began to draw her new strip, to be submitted to newspapers that afternoon. "We'll just have to see who lasts the longest."

"Alright."

"And when you come crawling back, I won't throw it in your face."

"I won't."

"How can you be so sure?"

"We've known each other four years, Caroline. How many women have you seen me with, besides Julia?" He saw her frown, trying to recall. There wasn't much to try and remember. "I could wait months. _Years._" Caroline scowled, and went back to her work.

The next week was a battle of wills, though Caroline seemed more determined to fight than Richard. As each day passed, her outfit became more and more provocative. On day one, she wore her most low-cut shirt. On day four, she had switched to a miniskirt and knee-high boots. On day six, Del actually blushed when he saw her (and this was Del they were talking about, it took a lot to shock him). Clearly, Annie was contributing her expert eye (and several of her less-respectable clothing options). But Richard, for his part, tried to act unmoved and completely natural, though even he felt his resolve slipping. So on the seventh day, he waited patiently to see what sexy outfit she had whipped up. But he was surprised when she came in wearing normal, semi-formal work attire. She walked past, even giving him a little smile. He must have looked taken aback, because she asked him if something was wrong.

"You're not-"

"Enough's enough, Richard," she said, with a mock sigh. "If you can wait forever, then I guess nothing I wear will change that."

"Right."

"So we should get back to work. Del wants four new cards by Monday."

But Richard was distracted. She wasn't going to try anymore? Did she not care anymore? Had she finally, and probably rightly, given up on him? He kept glancing up, and she looked totally normal, as if this was any other day. He even almost put the wrong color for the grass in one of the new cards, an error that he had never made before, even in the most trying of circumstances. At home, he tried to paint. This was how he organized his thoughts and how he relaxed. But his eyes kept moving towards the door, hoping to hear her knock.

Finally, after midnight, he couldn't take it anymore. He grabbed his coat and marched out the door. Later, he couldn't even remember traveling to her apartment, only that he seemed to be there in the blink of an eye, hammering on her door desperately. In seconds, she threw open the door.

"You win," he said, marching forward and wrapping her up in his arms, pulling her in close in a kiss. She threw her arms around his neck, and he noticed she wasn't wearing pajamas. In fact, she was wearing a coat. "Where were you going?" he asked, not even pulling away. Instead, he spoke between kisses, as he pulled off her coat and she his.

"Nowhere."

"Oh, really? You weren't going to come see me?"

"I was going to see Annie, actually."

"Really? You were walking ten feet down the hall with your coat on, after midnight?"

"That's my story, and I'm sticking to it," she replied, with a coy little smile.

The next morning, Richard had been forced to 'apologize' to Salty. Rolling his eyes and making sure his tone was heavy in sarcasm. He managed to mumble the word 'sorry'.

"Good boy," Caroline said, rustling his hair. As soon as she had turned away, Richard was sure to elbow Salty off the counter.

"I guess you really did win in the end," Richard said darkly. But when he turned to look at the spot next to him on the bed, Salty was gone. His eyes scanned the room. The door was closed, so she couldn't have left, she wasn't on the windowsill... and then he jumped up and looked into Stephano's bed. Stephano was sound asleep, and curled up around his head was that damned cat, also snoozing away calmly. "Get out of there! Shoo! Shoo!" Richard said, raising his voice, trying to startle the cat away from his son. He must have been louder than he thought, because Caroline came in seconds later.

"What's wrong?"

"That _thing_ is in Stephano's bed. Away! Go away!"

"It's sweet! Look at them!" Caroline said, and he could see her marshmallow side emerging.

"That creature is an incubator for disease and I don't want it near my son," Richard said, trying to physically remove Salty, who now seemed to weigh a thousand pounds.

"Come on, they're adorable together," Caroline said, touching Richard's arm and leaning over the crib edge to look at them. Richard's heart fluttered. She was touching him. She was touching him, and not flinching or jumping away. Caroline looked up, and for the first time in days, they were actually looking into each other's eyes. A little smile was creasing the edges of her mouth, and possibly the last thing he expected her to say left her lips:

"I think I have an idea for a strip!"


	13. Chapter 13: Randy and the First Date

Randy wasn't really the superstitious type, but there was one thing he had always thought was real. Perhaps it made him seem silly, but he'd always believed in fate. He believed that people ended up where they were supposed to. For a long time, his whole relationship with Caroline had seemed that way. They had dated long ago, but life circumstances had separated them. And then, all those years later, he had decided to buy her parents' house and there she had been. It wasn't until he found her again that he realized how much he liked her. Her warm personality, her smiling face, even the fact that she blushed easily. It seemed at the time her relationship with Richard was faltering, and Randy was closer to what she wanted. It was fate that had brought her back to him when her relationship with Richard fell through. Fate and Annie, obviously. It had been Annie who called him to come and help Caroline through her loss. But it had been fate that had made him the right man for the job. And here they were, about to be married, all because he'd admired her parents house.

But if fate was responsible for all that, then it had to be responsible for his current predicament, and Randy couldn't help but think fate was having a damn good laugh at his expense.

Everywhere Randy went, there was Richard. If Randy was eating breakfast, Richard needed to get baby food for Stephano. If Randy was reading the newspaper in the living room, Caroline and Richard were working at the desk just within view shot. And if Randy went to his room to escape them, Richard would run in, saying Caroline had asked for more of her old cartoon albums from under the bed. Richard was like a plague.

In the first few days, it hadn't been so bad. Well, it had been horrible, but it wasn't nightmarish. Caroline seemed just as, if not more, uncomfortable with Richard's presence as Randy. She wouldn't look at him, and their work was quickly becoming difficult. He was secretly hoping that this would disenchant her with her old strip. Personally, he viewed her old job as unnecessary in their future lives. It would distract her from children they might one day have, and they didn't need the money. But he wasn't about to deny her passion for her work. So at first, when it seemed that that passion had, indeed, died away, he couldn't help but be a little pleased.

Then it had all changed.

Suddenly Caroline and Richard were card-producing machines, and like parts of a machine, an extra cog only got in the way. Randy couldn't pinpoint the exact moment Richard had become part of the machine and Randy the extra piece, but it had happened, and now here he was, on the outside looking in. They appeared to communicate using telepathy. He'd hear conversations that left him scratching his head.

"Can you hand me the..."

"Here."

"Good. I like the look of..."

"I thought they complimented the..."

"It's really nice Richard."

"Oh, that's funny."

"You think? I was thinking of replacing the last word of the punchline with..."

"No, it's perfect. Don't change it."

It was painful enough that they seemed so close in wavelength that it was no longer necessary to finish their sentences. But when things took a turn to the more personal, he felt like he wanted to rip Richard into pieces and feed him to Salty.

"Will you ever get my nose right in these things?"

"You have a cartoon nose Richard. I can't change that. Plus, I always liked your nose." Randy felt his stomach flip, and Richard took a few seconds to respond.

"I hope Stephano likes it. All the Karinsky men have that nose."

"Well, he'll look just like his dad then."

Here, Randy usually made a large noise, like a cough. Or, once or twice, he had overturned a piece of furniture 'accidentally'. Of course, the only reason he overheard all of these conversations was because he had taken to eavesdropping on them. He stood behind corners, hidden from view. Sometimes he'd make a show of going upstairs and then stealthily sneak back down again. He'd even go outside and listen from a cracked window, though this became more difficult as the week proceeded to get colder and the frigid air made it not only unpleasant to be outside, but unlikely anyone would ever open a window.

But perhaps Randy was over-thinking this. After all, he was under a lot of stress. With Caroline working nonstop to save her strip, he was forced to re-plan their wedding without her. He was the one who had call the caterer and beg for forgiveness (they would have to pay twice as much for half the food, but he knew Caroline would appreciate it). He was the one who rebooked their honeymoon tickets. He was the one who found another church, just outside of town. They could only have an hour-long ceremony before they needed to make room for another wedding taking place in the same church, but he had already called the Monsignor's replacement and arranged for an abridged version of the service. The band, sadly, was still rife with inner conflict and wouldn't perform, but Randy figured they could always hook up some speakers and pop in a few CDs. Their reception would now be in the high school's gym. Though less glamorous, he managed to convince himself it would be alright. After all, it had a sort of nostalgic quality about it. Caroline and Randy had had their first dance there. It was more of that fate he was banking on.

Two days before the wedding, Randy saw something that made him more nervous than he had ever been before. He'd left to go check in on things at the hospital, but also because he couldn't spend one more second watching Caroline and Richard or there was a chance his head might explode. He had to fight all his instincts to stay at the house and watch them day and night. It was fairly late in the day, and he worried that Caroline might have been taking a nap. She and Richard were keeping strange sleep schedules these days, staying up late working on the strip, getting up early if Caroline had an inspiration, and taking short breaks during the day to make up for lost sleep. As he had expected, the house was silent; they usually did pass out in the late afternoons, just before dinnertime when they would be overtaken by a new wave of energy and work until well past midnight. He shuddered. He was beginning to refer to them as a 'they'.

He heard a rustle from the next room, and a whispered voice. It was Caroline. He didn't know why, but he tiptoed forward. Maybe he had become so used to lurking about spying that he had forgotten he was allowed to walk into any room in his own house.

The first thing he saw was Richard (never a welcome sight) passed out of the couch. His glasses were still on, so clearly this wasn't a planned break. Randy glanced over at the playpen. Empty. Then his eyes moved to the sound of footsteps, and he saw Caroline. She was holding Stephano, bouncing up and down. Randy felt a warmth in his heart. This was his Caroline, the woman he had hoped would one day be mother to his children. He knew, in that moment, that he loved her more than anything. But he still didn't go to her. He stood just out of view, listening.

"What do you think, Stephano? You don't want to wake Daddy, do you? So don't cry. Don't cry for Caroline." Randy peaked out, and saw Caroline still bouncing around the room. And then he saw her walk towards Richard. She looked down at him, still bouncing the very-happy looking Stephano. She then reached down. For one, horrible moment Randy thought she would kiss Richard. But instead, she took his glasses off, and set them on the side table. Then she took the blanket draped over the couch and, after maneuvering Stephano to rest for comfortably on her hip, managed to spread the blanket over Richard. He didn't even stir. Just as she was turning away, Richard spoke a word that made everyone, even baby Stephano, hold their breath.

"Caroline." It was barely a word. It was more of a breath. Randy felt paralyzed, stuck between his desire to stay put and watch these scene more, and to strangle Richard while he slept. Caroline didn't say anything. She just looked down at Richard (a little longer than necessary, in Randy's opinion), and then kept bouncing Stephano around the room, humming a little tune as she did.

The scene stuck with Randy. The three of them, together. Richard on the couch, and Caroline lovingly covering him with a blanket. They were like a family. And Randy wasn't part of that picture. He came up for a lot of reasons why he was overreacting. It was natural for anyone to do what Caroline did for a friend. As Caroline and Del proved, you could be on good terms with your ex without it being romantic. But that word stuck. _Family. _

Randy was an athlete in his younger days, and he knew the best of athletes were competitive by nature. Even back in the days when Richard and Caroline were still dating, he had been playing for her. He had been competing for her, in a game he was fairly sure he would win. And even though they would soon be walking down the aisle (again), he knew he still hadn't quite won this game. He would need to bring his A game, or as his coach was always so fond of saying: "You've gotta make your opponents cry for their mamas. That's when the game's really over."

The next day, he plotted his move. At around five in the afternoon, Caroline went up to her room for a break and Stephano was being particularly fussy. Richard took him into the guest room, though his shrieks could still be heard throughout of the house. Randy took his golden opportunity. Starting at the door to the bedroom, and leading all the way down the stairs and into the living room, he scattering a thick layer of rose petals. He cued a CD player to the right song. Then he waited. At around six fifteen, he heard a gasp from upstairs. Caroline had seen. He saw her slowly walking down the stairs, her eyes scanning over the steps, covering her mouth in surprise. When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she saw Randy, and a smile broke over her face. At that exact moment, he pressed play, and her favorite song filled the room.

"Did you do all this?" she asked, coming towards him, still looking awed.

"Actually, it was your fairy godmother. She just left," Randy said. From her reaction, he knew he had impressed her. "I'd chase her down to thank her, but we have a reservation in twenty minutes at the restaurant where we had our first date."

"I have to work," Caroline said, but as she did she came closer to him. "This is my favorite song."

"I know."

"Randy, are you trying to sweep me off my feet?"

"Yes. Is it working?"

"It would, but you already did. A long time ago." He leaned down to kiss her. This was his kiss. He didn't have to worry that she was thinking of someone else. No Richard around here, not right now. But of course, he had to show up eventually.

"Caroline, what is all this on the floor, I almost fell. Oh." Richard stopped, looking at Randy with mixed surprise and disdain.

"I was just making a little gesture for my soon-to-be-wife," Randy said, pulling Caroline in closer.

"Obviously. There's nothing like having a woman fall down the stairs and break her neck to really put her in the mood," Richard said, eying the staircase. "But now that you've had your little romantic interlude, Caroline and I should be getting back to work."

"Actually, Caroline and I are going to dinner."

"Well, Caroline knows that her work is more important than a dinner reservation."

"No, Caroline knows that its about time she took a break from work and had some alone time with her _fiance_." He was sure to emphasize the last word.

"Caroline can speak for herself," Caroline interrupted, before either could say another word. "Look, Richard, I'm going to go for a _short_ dinner with Randy. When I come back, we'll finish the last of the birthday cards. Alright?" Neither Richard nor Randy seemed completely happy with the plan, but Randy had to admit he had gotten the better end of the deal, so he accepted it and gave Richard several gloating looks. Richard only scowled.

Caroline and Randy bundled into the car, as Richard stared out the window at them with a distinct look of disapproval. Now Caroline and Randy were the 'they', Randy thought gleefully.

Carl's was the nicest restaurant in Peshtigo, which meant it had cloth tablecloths and a menu that didn't have pictures of all the food on it. This was where he and Caroline had had their first, adult date. So Caroline looked surprised when they drove past it. Instead, they pulled into the Wendy's off the highway, with its half-burned-out sign.

"This is where we had our first date _in high school_," Caroline said, with a laugh. "But I thought you said we had a reservation?"

"We do," Randy said. He then jumped out of the car and ran to her side, opening the door for her. "My lady." He took her by the arm, and led her through the parking lot, which was nearly empty. When they reached the doors, they were locked.

"I think they're closed," Caroline said, disappointed. But as she did, someone appeared within, with a key, and unlocked the door.

"Sir and madam," the pimply teenager said, wearing the Wendy's uniform. He gestured them inside. They walked through the doors, to the totally empty restaurant. In the middle was one set table, with a tablecloth and a candle burning in the middle. They sat down at the table, Caroline still looking around in wonder.

"What would you like for drinks?" the kid asked.

"What do you have?"

"On tap we have diet coke, regular coke, pepsi, fruit punch..."

"Diet coke, please," Caroline said. Randy ordered the same, and the kid disappeared behind the counter. Caroline looked like she was still in disbelief. "How did you do this?"

"What, Wendy's wasn't always like this?" Randy asked, looking around. But then he answered in earnest. "Remember Scott, from high school? He's the manager. Let's just say I owe him a lot of favors now." The rest of the meal went by in a flash. They were brought their burgers and fries. Afterwards they shared a chocolate milkshake, just like their first date.

"Hey! Don't take more than your share!" Caroline said, trying to sip faster to keep up.

"I'm not," Randy said, with mock innocence. "If you don't want me to drink more, stop me." Caroline laughed, and then leaned across the table and kissed him.

"I love you," Caroline said. Randy realized it was the first time he had heard that in a few days, and it made all the difference. Despite the fact that they would soon have to return to the house and their very unwelcome guest, right now he had her, and he knew that she loved him.

"I love you too," he said, kissing her again. "Now, we've got to get out of here. I had an hour, but I'm afraid a mob of angry Wendy's-lovers will overtake us if we don't leave soon." She laughed. Randy had a conversation with the manager in which he paid him a lot more than a meal at Carl's would have cost, and then they left. They held hands in the car. It was almost perfect, until about five minutes before they reached the house. Caroline had spent almost the entire ride talking about how wonderful it had all been.

"We're almost back," Randy said, turning off at an exit from the highway. And then he gave in to his slightly darker thoughts. "He'll be there."

"Richard?" Caroline said, looking over at him. "Yeah, but in a few days he'll be gone."

"They can't go fast enough."

"He's doing me a favor, Randy! Do you honestly think he wants to be here? If you spent any time with him, you'd realize he'd do anything to go home."

"Are you sure about that?" Randy asked. "Because it seems like all of this is working pretty well in his favor."

"Randy, was all of this because of him?" Caroline asked. "Did you do all of this because you're _jealous_?"

"No."

"It was. I can't believe this."

"What, Caroline? Wasn't it a nice gesture-"

"But it wasn't for me! It was just so you could one-up Richard in a game that only exists in your head! Did you really think I'd be happy about that?"

"Caroline-"

"Randy, I'm marrying you. I want to be with you. We're getting married in two days, do you really think I still have feelings for Richard? Do you not trust me at all?"

"Caroline! Look!" Randy was pointing towards Caroline's house, and what they saw made her temporarily silent.

"Oh my god," she said, horror entering her voice. "What the hell happened?"


	14. Chapter 14: Richard and the Spark

They were almost finished. Richard had thought that as he put the finishing touches on a birthday card Caroline had drawn just before leaving to go to dinner with Randy. They were almost finished with their work. Or, more accurately, Caroline was almost finished with Richard. And yet, things between them were almost as good as they had been in the past. With the exception of the playpen in the corner, it could have been two years ago. But it was not two years ago, Richard remembered, as he picked up a wedding invitation that was lying on the coffee table. He needed to buy a plane ticket home. He needed to get out of Wisconsin and go back and New York and try and remember how to live without her.

The problem was, living _with _her was feeling more and more right. The last few days had been wonderful. There had been something between them, a spark of something he recognized from the old days. It was the spark he had first felt working with her in the early days, when he wouldn't let himself believe he was in love with her (though it was fairly obvious that he was). It was the same spark that had remained through her relationships with Del and the veterinarian and Trevor. It was the same spark that had been there while he had been married to Julia. And it was the same spark that had led to their relationship, the happiest time in his life (before fatherhood). And it was there. It was in every conversation, every moment when their eyes met or their fingers touched, every compliment on work. The only problem was, he couldn't be sure she felt the same. He felt, by now, he should know. With Julia, he could tell her every emotion by the look on her face. He was an artist, after all. He had seen Julia from every angle and in every light. He could tell when she was annoyed or happy or excited. But then, Julia hadn't been a difficult person to decipher. Her moods were shallow and variable, he could usually guess how she would react to something. But Caroline was deeper than that. He could never tell what she was feeling. Was the blush in her cheeks guilt, because she felt she was emotionally cheating on Randy? Or was it simply the heat of the fire-warmed room? When he caught her eyes on him, was she thinking about how sad she would be after his imminent departure, or was she wondering when she could get rid of him and move on with Randy? He found himself watching her across the desk, wondering what went on in that head of hers. And so, the days passed, and soon it was the day before he was set to leave, and two days before her wedding.

Stephano was having a bad day. Richard felt like he and his son had a strange bond sometimes, as if his child could feel when his father was distraught and responded by being similarly upset. And that day, as Richard tried to enjoy his last moments with Caroline, Stephano had been near inconsolable. It got so bad he needed to stop working all together and bring Stephano into the guest room and try and coax him into silence.

When Richard had finally put his son down, he had left the room to try and get back to work. But his nostrils were immediately assaulted by the stink of rotting flowers. He followed his nose, and then almost slipped on the floor. He only just managed to catch himself by grabbing on to the wall. If that hadn't been enough, he turned the corner and found himself watching Caroline and Randy in a lip-lock that made his stomach turn.

For a while afterwards, after Caroline left for some romantic dinner Randy had planned, he thought about that kiss. That stupid kiss. It made him sick to see it. Randy's kiss. If Richard had been in his own house, he would have rushed off to his room and immediately began painting, but there were no materials for that here. He tried to color in the new cards for a while, but his dark thoughts were coming back and encroaching on his ability to concentrate. Only when he heard a little cry from Stephano did he realize it was around dinner time.

"OK, OK," Richard said, scooping up his son and taking him to the kitchen. Richard had been trying to avoid this room, and the reason was hanging from a hook by the back door. It was Caroline's dress, wrapped in dry cleaner's plastic, ready for its trip down the aisle. It had been there since earlier in the day. Seeing it sent waves of annoyance through him. He tried to ignore it and deal with the situation at hand.

"Let's see what we have here." He looked through the baby food options. "Strained peas?" Stephano turned his face away. "No good. Alright. How about pears, mmm, yummy yummy pears. No, that's not going to work either. So what do you want, Stephano? What do you want?" Richard sat down at the table, suddenly feeling tired. He supposed the important question was, what did _he_ want? Here he was, living with the love of his life and her soon-to-be-husband. On top of that, he hated it here. He hated the fact that it was barely fall and it was already bitterly cold. He hated that there were no nice restaurants. He hated that their idea of 'good art' was a kitschy, neon-colored poster of Jesus. He hated that he couldn't go outside because the townspeople still despised him and kept throwing small stones at him. He wanted to go back to New York, where he could move into his new apartment, rent a macabre East German documentary and paint to his heart's content. But he wanted something else too. He hadn't totally realized it until the day before.

He had fallen asleep on the couch after he and Caroline had worked several hours straight. Randy hadn't been there, which was a relief, because he kept trying to listen in on their conversations and interrupt them if he thought they were being too friendly. If he kept knocking things over the distract them, there was a chance all the furniture in the house would be broken by the time Richard left. So, with Randy at the hospital, he and Caroline had worked in relative peace. But their strange sleep schedule had gotten to him, and somehow he had drifted over to the couch as Caroline brainstormed for strip ideas. In the next second, he had drifted off.

He opened his eyes, and sun was pouring through the windows.

"Caroline?" he called out, getting up from the couch. "Caroline, where are you?"

"In here," she called back. He followed her voice, but the hallways were unfamiliar. No, they weren't. They were in his apartment. He realized it suddenly, and then it seemed so obvious he couldn't believe he had been confused. He came around a corner, and found her in a kitchen. The little window over the sink revealed the New York skyline.

"What are you doing?" he asked, coming closer. She smiled at him, but his eyes were on her abdomen. She was pregnant. She was really pregnant. There was a smudge of flour on her cheek, and she was licking frosting off her fingers.

"I hate when you do that," he said, but there was no venom. Her table manners had always been a little lacking, especially when she had been at home and only close friends were near.

"I'm pregnant, I can do whatever I want," she said, with a laugh, and took a big fingerful of icing on her index finger and licked it off with emphasis.

"What are you making?" Richard asked. He was a little worried. Caroline always baked when she was nervous or stressed over something. But she just kept smiling happily.

"A wedding cake, silly," she said, and as she stepped aside he saw it. It was a towering cake, taller than she was, white and immaculate. It was the sort of cake he never would have wanted at his own wedding. If there was going to be cake at his wedding, it would be small and unadorned, much like the wedding itself. But this was a cake for a big shindig, the sort of church wedding Caroline would have always wanted. The sort she had already had, and would soon have again.

"You're marrying Randy," Richard said, with a bolt of understanding.

"Of course."

"That's Randy's baby."

"Who else's would it be?" He couldn't seem to catch his breath. It was like something was pressing down on his chest. He caught a glimpse out the little window. New York was gone, and all he could see were the thick woods of Wisconsin. He still couldn't seem to breath. His eyes opened, and he found himself in a nightmare where a huge creature's gigantic yellow eyes were baring down on him. Then he realized it was no huge creature, just the damned cat, standing on his chest.

"You," he said, his voice filled with contempt. He stood abruptly, and the cat was thrown to the ground with a satisfying thud. Along with it went a blanket Richard had apparently been covered in. Other than that, it was hard to figure out what was going on because the world was so blurry. Someone had taken off his glasses.

"Who took my glasses?" Richard yelled out. He wasn't discounting a childish prank from Randy. But Caroline's calming voice responded instead.

"Well, _someone_ woke up on the wrong side of the couch," she said, and her blurry form showed up in the room. "You fell asleep with them on again. I took them off. You're welcome." After that, they went back to work, and Richard had a very hard time looking her in the eye.

He spent a lot of time thinking about his dream afterwards. And now here he was, a day later, and he knew what it had meant. He didn't want closure. He didn't want to wave goodbye to her tomorrow, knowing she would marry Randy and disappear from his life. What he wanted, more than anything else, was her. He wanted her. He wanted to marry her and he wanted her to be pregnant with _his_ child. He wanted that apartment in New York, the city where they had met and fallen in love. He wanted her to help raise Stephano, because he knew that she would always love him as much as she would her own child. But he had seen her with Randy, kissing Randy, ready to marry him and have his kids.

And now that he had finally come to this momentous conclusion (though, in retrospect, it really had been obvious since the second he had gotten on the plane to Wisconsin), he realized that, actually, what he wanted was unimportant. What she wanted was far more important, and if that kiss said anything, it said that she had already made her choice.

Richard felt a small hand on his cheek. He turned his eyes down, and Stephano, sitting in his lap, was tapping his chin.

"Let's get you that food," Richard said. He stood up, went over to the refrigerator, and looked through the option. He pulled out an avocado, fairly ripe. He held it out to Stephano, and though it may have been in his head, he was fairly certain his son nodded in approval. Richard cut it up into small pieces, and put them on the tray of the high chair Caroline had also lent him. Stephano picked at the pieces happily. Richard realized that he should probably eat something too.

He usually tried to avoid cooking at all costs. Cooking always reminded him of his childhood. He had vivid memories of his mother's half-cooked chickens and still icy frozen peas. When he had gotten old enough, he decided he was going to buy pre-made food like any other smart person, and never cooked anything more complicated than a slice of toast. Today was no different.

He plugged the toaster in, and put the bread into the slots. But as he turned on the toaster, it made a strange noise. When he tried again, it sparked, hitting his thumb and causing him to cry out some choice words he hoped Stephano wouldn't remember. Of course the toaster was broken, Richard thought bitterly. Caroline could never bring herself to throw anything away. She probably kept it because her Great Aunt Someone-of-Other had made toast with it when she was a child. While he thought about that, and examined it injured thumb, a strange smell hit his nostrils. It was the smell of fire. He turned abruptly. Apparently, in his haste to treat his injury, he hadn't realized that he wasn't the only victim. A dishtowel was now alight. Richard grabbed it, in his horror forgetting where the sink was. He ran to the wrong side of the kitchen, keeping the quickly-disintegrating cloth as far away from himself and his son as possible. But as soon as water was running over it, he saw something out of the corner of his eye. While he had been flailing around with the lit cloth, it had thrown a spark of its own. Caroline's dress was burning up as if it had been doused in gasoline. The smell of melting plastic and burnt fabric was filling the room, as well as a thick smoke that was making it hard to breath.

Maybe in the past, Richard might have tried to stop the fire from spreading. Or, more likely, he would have run out to save himself. But only one thing went through his mind in that second: Get Stephano out. He grabbed his son, who was already coughing, and ran for the front door. The way to the back was blocked by the fire on the the dress, which had now spread to parts of the back wall as well.

He threw himself out the front door, into the frigid cold. Stephano was crying now, between little coughs. Richard frantically looked around. Thankfully, Caroline's neighbors weren't far. He could already hear the smoke alarms going off in Caroline's house as he ran.

He banged on the door next door. A severe woman, probably in her late seventies, opened the door, looking him up and down skeptically.

"Call the fire department!" Richard yelled out, between breaths. "Caroline Duffy's house in on fire!"

"What's that, son? You have to speak up... Oh! It's _you_," she said the last word with contempt. "I remember _you_ from the wedding."

"Yes, and we can talk about that later but right now Caroline's house is burning down!" Richard yelled back.

"Yes, burning with the fires of hell, where you belong," she replied, trying to close the door in his face. He caught it with the hand that wasn't holding Stephano.

"No, you miserable old crone, ACTUAL FIRE!" Richard screamed in her face. It took another five minutes to convince her to call the firefighters, all the while mumbling under her breath about Richard and his 'shenanigans'. Meanwhile, the smell of burning house was getting stronger with each passing moment.

Soon enough, the sound of sirens permeated the air. The flashing lights whizzed by them. Richard rushed back to the house, and now it was clear that the entire kitchen, part of the floor above, and most of the living room were on fire.

The next minutes passed in a blur. Men in uniform running into the house with long hoses. People asking Richard how this could have happened. The same people who had been throwing stones at him. People who were now looking at him with a very clear expression: This is your fault, and you did it on purpose. Meanwhile, paramedics were looking over Stephano and strapping an oxygen mask over Richard's face. And in the middle of all this, he saw Caroline and Randy show up, looking around in horror.

"Richard!" she called out, running over to him. "Are you alright? And Stephano? What happened?"

"It's a little hard to talk with this," Richard said, indicating the mask.

"Does he need the mask?" Caroline asked a passing paramedic.

"No, we just put that on to shut him up," he man replied. Richard ripped it off immediately.

"Your toaster tried to kill me," Richard said darkly. Just as he was going to explain further, a firefighter came up to Caroline.

"So sorry about this," he said, and from his tone, he was obviously an old friend. "The good news is, it looks a lot worse than it actually is. Most of the damage is in the kitchen and living room. It's like someone was intentionally aiming for something in there."

"I wasn't aiming for anything! The dress just lit up, and-" Richard stopped short, as he saw a bolt of horror shoot across Caroline's face.

"My dress," she said, barely in a whisper.

"Our tickets to Hawaii," Randy cut in. He turned on Richard, his eyes wide with hatred. "You did this."

"Don't be absurd," Richard replied.

"No, it all makes sense now. You waited until we were out of the house, and then you destroyed the things for our wedding: the dress, the honeymoon tickets... You could have gotten your son killed!"

"You're being ridiculous," Richard said, trying to inject some rationality into the conversation. "I would never do something like that. Tell him, Caroline." But Caroline wasn't speaking. She was looking back at the house, her eyes wide and glassy. "Caroline! Tell him I wouldn't do this. You do believe that... Don't you?" Suddenly, he wasn't so sure she _did _believe that.

"I don't know what to believe, Richard," she said softly.

"You're sick, you know that? You've got a problem," Randy said, disgust in his voice.

"I didn't do this!" Richard yelled, gesturing towards the house. "Caroline, you have to believe me."

"I've had to do a lot of that lately," Caroline said, tears welling up in her eyes. "First, you didn't mean to interrupt my wedding. Then you hit the Monsignor with a car, and that was an accident too, and now this." Her eyes lingered on her charred house. "That's a lot of coincidences, Richard."

"Caroline, I wouldn't burn down your house."

"Everything's ruined," she said, not really to anybody.

"We still have the church booked," Randy wheedled. "We can still have our wedding."

"That was my mother's dress," Caroline said numbly.

"We're taking these two to the hospital," an extremely uncomfortable paramedic cut in. "One of you could ride with us, if you want."

"No," Caroline said, though Richard wondered if she was even listening. Her eyes were stuck on the blackened side of her house.

"Then we should go," he said. They lifted the stretcher Richard was lying on, pushing it into the ambulance. Stephano was already in there, sitting on a paramedic's lap and playing with his stethoscope.

"Caroline, I'll come back and explain everything, I didn't do this on purpose," Richard yelled out, as they were closing the doors. He managed to hear her reply before the doors were closed to the outside.

"Don't come back," she said coldly. "You've already ruined everything."

As the ambulance drove down the street, Richard couldn't help but think of the last time he was in one. It was the night he proposed to Caroline, when their relationship had been hanging by a thread. He had been held up at gunpoint in a video rental store, and he had known, with his life on the line, that he wanted her for the rest of life. The ordeal had landed him in the hospital, but he had insisted that the paramedics take him to Caroline first. Last time he had spent the entire ride smiling. Once they got to the hospital, Caroline showed up. She had climbed into his bed and kissed him until the doctors kicked her out. In between kisses, he could see her smiling. It was a whole different person than the numbed, cold woman who had told him to stay away and never return.

He wanted her more than anything in the world. But barring that, he wanted her to be happy. His presence obviously brought nothing but destruction and disappointment. In that moment, he made the decision that he should have made in the beginning. It was the decision that would have saved him from this, that would have led to her being married and happy and on her honeymoon right now. He was going to ensure her happiness. He was going to leave her alone, forever.

In that moment, Stephano started crying.


	15. Chapter 15: Caroline and the Dream

She surveyed herself in the mirror. Caroline wasn't one to brag, but she had to admit, she looked pretty good in this dress. She felt like a princess. Had she ever felt so carefree before her wedding? When she had almost married Del, she had always felt that there was something wrong between them, that they weren't quite right. When she was about to marry Richard, he had wanted to rush the whole thing, get it over with as soon as possible, and she had had only brief moments, looking at herself in her dress, when she thought things would really work out. Before her first wedding to Randy, her mother had stood next to her, giving her escape routes. But she was alone in this room, with just the mirror, looking at herself in her big white dress, and it was just like she had imagined it as a child. It was her mother's dress, in the church she wanted. Everything was perfect.

A light knock on the door made her jump. Awkwardly, Richard stepped into the room, but as was usual, he didn't let awkwardness keep him from talking.

"It looks like _Modern Bride_ threw up out there," Richard said, coming closer. He did keep some distance, a safe distance.

"Read a lot of wedding magazines, Richard?" Caroline asked, with a weak smile.

"I have, but only because I was told to at gunpoint," he replied. "I told the man to just shoot me, but he refused."

"I'm glad you came," Caroline said.

"You are?" he asked. There was hope in those words. She couldn't let this continue.

"I wanted to give this back," she said, reaching for an envelope balanced on the window sill. She handed it to him. "I was waiting for the right time, but there never seemed to be a good moment." He took the envelope. If she had gotten it, she would have carefully torn it open, to leave the envelope as intact as possible. He tore it so that it fell into several shredded pieces at his feet. He held out the object contained inside.

"It's a check," he said. "I don't work for you anymore, Caroline. I don't need your money."

"I'll just take it back then-"

"No! I could never refuse such a generous gift." He looked at the check. "Well, it's not _that_ generous."

"I owed you."

"You paid me my last check."

"No, from a long time ago. Almost four years ago, you came to me before my wedding to Del, and you gave me a check and then you..." she paused.

"I, what?" Richard said, stepping in a little too close. "I did this?" And in one smooth motion, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her. She remembered this kiss. It took her breath away, and made it impossible for her to think, or do anything but melt completely into him. He pulled back, just a little, so that they could breath. He kept his forehead pressed against hers, as she tried to make herself pull away. "Do you really want me to take that check Caroline? Do you really want me to go?"

"I..." she began, but she couldn't decide. Why couldn't she pull away from him? Why was she stuck like this? She was beginning to panic, what if Randy walked in, what if one of her friends saw? But wait, She had never gotten to the altar with Del, how could Richard have given her that check the day of the wedding?

Her eyes flickered open. Randy shifted beside her. He looked totally untroubled, handsome even in his sleep. She was in a darkened hotel room, the room they had been living in for days after the fire had destroyed parts of her house. Her work, thankfully, had come out unscathed, but the rest of the living room and the kitchen were unrecognizable. The house had been deemed unsafe, and they hadn't been told when they could return.

In the last few days, everything had changed. In light of the fire, they had been forced to postpone the ceremony once again. Randy had spent the afternoon making calls to rearrange the plans, but it was no use; he came in with a disappointed look on his face, and she knew what he had heard.

"The caterer won't reschedule, will she?" she said, feeling depressed.

"No," he replied. "And the airline won't refund our tickets, or change our flight. We can't have our reception at the high school on the new day because they have the Fall Formal that night, and the church is booked through the Winter." He took her hand. "Caroline, I'll fix this, I'll talk to all of them again, and-"

"No," she said. She felt defeated. "We already had the big wedding in the church. I just want to marry you." She buried her head in his chest, feeling the reassuring beat of his heart against her cheek.

"OK," he said, and she heard a definite sigh of relief. "I'll make a date at the courthouse, then. It'll just be the two of us, and our parents. We won't let anything else get in the way. I promise, this time."

In that moment, she had known that she loved Randy. But, not two days later, she had dreamt of Richard. She'd dreamt of him before her wedding to Del. Richard had come to her, and instead of a gift he had given her a check, and then he had kissed her. She had spent days trying to decipher what it had meant, but in the end, Richard had disappeared to Paris. Later, when they had finally been together, she wondered whether it had been some sort of sign, that her heart had known, even then, that she and Richard were meant to be. But, apparently, that wasn't true.

Since the fire, she hadn't seen Richard. On that night, she had been so shattered by things she could barely think straight. Somehow, it almost seemed plausible that the fire had been some sort of elaborate ruse to gain her attention. It didn't help that Richard wasn't the most ethical of guys; she could remember several times he had compromised himself for some sort of benefit. He had once pretended to be dead in order to gain recognition as an artist. He went so far as the force his friends to put on an open-casket wake. Another time, he had agreed to be bar-mitzvahed, despite being an atheist, for five thousand dollars. But she knew he would never put himself or Stephano in danger.

Randy felt differently. He had argued for hours with the police chief, and the arson investigator, who both insisted there was no proof that Richard had started the fire on purpose, and even pointed to the faulty toaster as a likely cause. Randy had marched down to the hospital to "deal with the problem," but apparently Richard had checked out (against doctor's orders), and taken a healthy Stephano with him. None of the hotels in town knew where they were staying. They had disappeared. Randy had eventually run out of steam, but he still told anyone who would listen that Richard should be thoroughly investigated and then thrown in jail. And Caroline stayed silent. She couldn't figure out what bothered her about all this: that the kind-hearted Randy had been partially replaced by a cold, vengeance-seeking version of himself, or that all his venom was directed at Richard.

She needed to talk to someone. Before she could stop herself, she had grabbed the phone and dialed Annie's number. Then, awkwardly, she rushed into the bathroom and locked the door, hoping it was somehow soundproofed in case Randy woke up. A groggy voice on the other end picked up.

"Annie?"

"Caroline? Look, I don't know what time it is in Wisconsin, but here in New York its the crack of dawn."

"Annie, we're only an hour behind."

"Oh... Caroline, do you realize its the crack of dawn right now?"

"I know, I know, but you see... I had a dream about Richard."

Some of the sleep immediately cleared from Annie's voice.

"What sort of dream? Details, Caroline!"

Caroline described the dream, her heart racing as she mentioned the kiss. Although no one was there to see it, she blushed deeply at the thought.

"So?" Annie asked.

"So? What do you think it means?"

"I think it means you have feelings for the vampire."

"Annie! I'm in love with Randy!"

"I didn't say you weren't. But remember when you had that dream before you married Del?"

"She had a dream about Richard before our wedding?" A new voice was speaking in the background.

"Del, shut up, we're having a private conversation-"

"I can have private conversations too!"

"Del, go into the other room. I'll come get you when I'm done."

"No! Last time I went into the living room in the middle of the night, I bumped into your mother and she made me listen to her talk about how constipated she was for about two hours! It was like slow torture."

"Don't talk about Ma like that!"

Caroline realized she had been forgotten, and hung up the phone. Her phone call hadn't had the effect she had wanted. She wanted Annie to say all this was nothing, that she didn't have feelings for Richard, Caroline was just having jitters. More importantly, she wanted Annie to physically be there, to hug Caroline and tell her it would really be alright. But Annie would never be there for her like that again. At this moment, Caroline would have settled for Del, or even Charlie. She didn't have friends like that here in Peshtigo. Her old high school friends would talk endlessly about their kids, about problems at the PTA, about carpooling to soccer practices and Tuesday afternoon book club. If Caroline wanted to talk about the details of her wedding, they would sit around excitedly and ask for more information. But none of them wanted to hear her talk about the feelings she might have for Richard. For one, all of them had been at her wedding, and now hated Richard. For another, Randy was like a town celebrity. Many had told her how happy they were that he had finally found someone to settle down with. Caroline felt like she didn't have any true friends here, not anymore. In that moment, when all she wanted was someone to talk to, she had no one. She had never felt so lonely.

Before she knew what she was doing. she had put on a pair of sweatpants and rushed out the door of the hotel room. She was in the car before she could even take a breath, speeding away from the hotel down the highway. In no time at all, she had pulled into the driveway. She jumped out of the car and ran towards the door. She pressed on the buzzer desperately. Finally, the door opened. It was her mother, dressed in a huge nightgown, looking extremely surprised.

"Caroline? Get out of the cold! You must be freezing!" Her mother said, ushering her in. It was just like her mother; she didn't ask why Caroline was there at five in the morning, she was only concerned she might catch a cold. "Would you like some cookies?"

"No, really, I-"

"I'll bake some."

"You don't have to do that-"

"Sit there and I'll get the ingredients." Knowing she couldn't win, Caroline sat at the kitchen table, and her mother starting getting flour and sugar out of the cabinets. "What's wrong, dear?" her mother asked, as she removed a glass jug of milk from the fridge. This was like a scene out of Caroline's childhood. Anytime Caroline needed to talk about something, her mother would sit her down in the kitchen and bake something. When Caroline was having problems with a kid in her second-grade class, her mother had baked a cherry pie. When Caroline had fallen in love with the boy in her sixth grade class who had no feelings for her, her mother had made gingerbread (it was near Christmas, anyway). When Caroline had a falling out with her best friend in high school, her mother had baked several batches of brownies. And when Caroline was wondering whether she should continue with college or quit and become a cartoonist, she had gotten a lecture and a chocolate cake. And now here she was, on the eve of her wedding, and her mom was gearing up to make oatmeal raisin cookies. The very thought of it sent a wave of relief through Caroline. She knew she had come to the right place. Meanwhile, Salty the cat jumped into her lap, and Caroline pet her soothingly. She was currently a refugee here until Caroline's house could be fixed.

"I had a dream about Richard," Caroline began. She then launched into the whole sequence again, while her mother bustled around the kitchen.

"I can see how that might be a bit confusing," her mother said, without any judgement.

"What do you think it means? Do you think I still have feelings for Richard? Or that he's been on my mind lately and its just jitters? I don't know what to do," Caroline said, laying her forehead down on the table. Her mother stopped moving for a moment, came over and began stroking Caroline's hair reassuringly.

"It'll be alright," she said. Then there was a 'ding'. "The butter's softened!" she exclaimed, going across the kitchen. Then, almost as an afterthought: "So, who do you love?"

"Richard!" Caroline said, and then flushed red. "I mean, Randy. I meant Randy. Gosh, those names are similar. All those 'r's."

"As long as you get it right on the day," her mother said, with a little giggle. "Do you want to lick the bowl?" Caroline took it, and began scraping cookie dough out of the bowl with her fingers. Richard always hated when she did that. She remembered, long ago, when he was just her employee and she his boss, he had gotten angry with her for doing just that.

"Will you stop that?" he had asked, exasperated, as she took a bit of ice cream out of the bottom of a near-empty carton with her fingertip.

"It's my house, Richard, and I can do what I want," she had replied, taking another bit from the bottom.

"Yes, and I have to work here. I don't think it's too much to ask that there be some rules and boundaries," he said, harping on a point he had been trying to make for weeks. "A line between house and office."

"Alright," Caroline had said, stepping closer. She said dragged her foot across the floor in a straight line, a few feet from her desk. "_Here. _That's the line." She then stood just on the other side, licking melting ice cream from her fingers. Richard had given her a venomous look. He had then marched forward and grabbed the carton from her hand, blithely tossed it out the window, sat back down at the desk, and continued working as if nothing had happened.

"Richard, that could have hit someone!" Caroline cried out, rushing to the window. Thankfully, the carton had landed on the empty street below.

"Well, it was in the office, and the new office rules state that empty ice cream cartons are thrown out the window."

"You have a bad attitude, you know that?" Caroline retorted, now furious.

"You mean it?" he asked, as if this was a compliment.

"Look, this is my house, and I make the rules, mister," she said, poking him in the shoulder for emphasis. "And if I want to lick ice cream out of the carton, I can. If you don't like it, you can leave. Got it?"

"Don't tempt me," Richard had said. He had then left early for the day, stomping out the door and slamming it behind him. She thought he would cool down and that would be the end of it, but the next day she realized the fight wasn't over. Richard had come through the doors, and instead of walking straight for his work station, he had plopped down on the couch, kicked off his shoes, and put his black sock-covered feet on her coffee table.

"Hey," he said, grabbing the remote and starting to flip through her television channels.

"What are you doing?" she had asked. They had a long day of work ahead of them.

"We're in your home," he explained. "And since you brought me here, I'm your guest. If I was in an office, I would have to work, but since I'm a guest, then I think I'll just relax here. Can you get me a sandwich?"

"I am not getting you a sandwich." He hadn't said anything, just held up his hand expectantly. She was even about to make that sandwich, when she had stopped. "Fine, I won't lick my fingers when I eat."

"Thank you," he had said, beginning to put his shoes back on and going towards his desk. A few weeks later, she would break that rule. By that time, they had settled into a sort of pattern, and he hadn't become furious, only sighed loudly.

"We're never going to have a normal work environment, are we," he had said, sounding defeated.

"Nope."

"Will you pay me another dollar an hour if I stop complaining about it?"

"Would you actually stop complaining?"

"Out loud."

"Done," she had said, and they had shook on it. He had broken his own rule too.

Just thinking of it made her remember how difficult Richard always was. He was so serious. He could never relax. Randy could relax. Randy didn't mind when she licked salt out of the bottom of a popcorn container at the movies. Randy was wonderful. Richard was terrible. This was the mantra that she had to keep repeating in her head.

"Honey, are you still with us?" her mother asked. She was already taking the cookies out of the oven, and the smell permeated the entire room. Light was pouring through the window over the sink. It was already morning. It was the morning of her wedding day.

"I'm here," Caroline said. "Thanks for listening. I should probably get home." She stood, and Salty jumped back to the floor, sauntering away sadly.

"Alright, but honey," Caroline turned as she headed for the door. "Your father and I scoped out the courthouse, and we know where all the exits are. Just in case." Caroline smiled, grabbed a cookie, and headed for home.

After she was gone, Mrs. Duffy began the clean-up, when a noise behind her made her jump.

"Was that Caroline?" Richard asked.

"She just stopped by for some cookies," Mrs. Duffy replied. "I don't know why I couldn't tell her you were here."

"It's better this way," Richard said. "Thanks for letting me stay. You're the only people who would take me in."

"Are you sure you're not going to interrupt the wedding?"

"My flight leaves in a few hours. I'll probably be in New York by the time she says 'I do'." His voice had become sour. Mrs. Duffy knew that he hadn't overheard them.

"Are you sure? You should see the wedding, after-"

"I'm sure."

"But she should know-"

"No. Please. It's best this way." He paused, looking at the door she had departed through. "I just want her to be happy. He makes her happy. She doesn't need me."

Caroline returned to the hotel room to find Randy half-dressed.

"Hey!" he said, covering his eyes as she came in. "I thought you'd left. Bad luck to see the bride the day of, and all that. You have to get out of here!" she smiled. She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him, kissing him deeply. When she pulled away, his eyes opened in surprise.

"I just want to be with you," she said, not pulling away. This felt right. And that weird feeling at the very back of her mind that wanted to pull away was just pre-wedding nerves. "And anyway, I don't think there's any more bad luck left. We've already gotten hit with all of it, and we made it through."

"Then you really should go. Bad luck is already gunning for us, why invite more?" He almost sounded like he believed it, as he pushed her through the door, giving her one last kiss before she left.

After that, Caroline went to the local thrift store and bought a cheap white dress. She had meant to go in one of the dresses she already owned, but at the last minute she wanted some modicum of tradition at her court wedding. At the very least, she wanted to wear white. She sighed as she surveyed herself. It would have to do. She then drove back to her parents' house. She couldn't have known that, not five minutes before, her father had left to drive Richard and Stephano to the airport.

She was looking at herself in the mirror, wearing her dress, when she heard a knock on the door. Her heart sank. For one, horrible moment, she thought her dream was coming true. But the door opened, and her heart leapt.

"Annie!" she said, rushing forward and throwing her arms around her friend. "But, on the phone-"

"Yeah, sorry about that. But it would have ruined the surprise. Del and I took an early flight out. I wasn't going to miss your big day."

"Oh, Annie," Caroline said, her eyes welling up with tears as she hugged her friend again. She probably hugged her a little tighter than necessary, and for a little too long, because Annie's voice became concerned.

"Is everything alright, Caroline? If you hold me any tighter I'm gonna lose circulation to my head." She then paused. "Is it about the dream?"

"I don't want to talk about that," Caroline said, turning back to her own reflection. "I don't want to talk about him."

"Alright," Annie said. She glanced down at her watch. "We've gotta get going!"

"But we don't have to be there until four."

"Well, with your luck, it won't hurt us to be a little early." Caroline had to agree.

Annie offered to drive, and Caroline was so nervous she decided it was probably a good idea. She stared out the window. Dark clouds were approaching, and the temperature was low. It might snow. She hoped the incoming darkness wasn't some sort of omen. She decided to look at it as a good sign: snow would blanket the world in white, a literal blank slate for her and Randy. Then they would go on a road trip, just the two of them, for their honeymoon. She would drive away from all the bad things that had happened. No burned up house, no ruined wedding plans, no thoughts of Richard. She was thinking about her new, clear future when she realized they had just driven past the courthouse.

"Annie, stop! That was it!"

"Huh?"

"Annie, go back, we just passed the courthouse."

"Oh, did we?"

"Annie, where are we going? This is the church! Why are we here?"

Annie stopped the car.

"Get out," she said.

"Annie, I'm not getting married here," Caroline said. It was the first church, the place she had dreamed of getting married her whole life, the place where she had almost seen that dream achieved. Being here was just reminding her of what she had lost.

"Just go inside. I think you left something here."

"No, I didn't. Turn the car around."

"I'm not moving until you go in there." Annie's eyebrows were raised, and she was staring at Caroline pointedly. Caroline could do nothing but get out of the car. She reluctantly let Annie push her towards the church, all the while trying to pull away and go back to the car. But as she walked in she saw the sign outside the church announcing a wedding.

"They made a mistake," she said incredulously. The names were not those of strangers, but her own name, and Randy's. "We have to tell them. They put the wrong names."

"No they didn't," Annie said, with a little smile. They pushed through the doors, and Caroline thought she had gone back in time. Here she was, in the wedding hall, just like it had been the first time. The flowers were the ones she had wanted. The guests were her guests. She even heard the faint sound of Annie's mother singing.

"What's going on?"

"It's your wedding, Caroline. I know everything's been a disaster, but we thought you deserved the wedding of your dreams. So we made it happen."

"We?"

"Your parents helped, and Del, and even Charlie. Did you know he can balance a five tier cake in one hand and still roll faster than a car on those skates?" Caroline couldn't speak. Tears were streaming down her face. "Oh, don't get all emotional. You know in a second I'll be crying too." At the end of the sentence, Annie's voice cracked, and she and Caroline hugged one last time. "Come on," she finally managed to say, pulling away. "We've got one last surprise."

She pulled her into a side room, a place Caroline was familiar with. This was where she had stood just before she had walked down the aisle with Randy, while her mother had whispered escape plans in her ear. She gasped as she entered the room.

"But... it was ruined," she said, reaching out. It was her dress. It was immaculately clean, wrapped in clear plastic, waiting patiently for her. "How did you do this?"

"I'm pretty good with a sewing machine," Annie said. When Caroline gave her a questioning glance, she sighed loudly. "Alright, Ma's pretty good with a sewing machine."

"Thank you, Annie," Caroline said. For the next few minutes, Caroline struggled into the dress, which fit perfectly. It was as if the original had never been ruined. If it was possible, this one seemed to fit her a little better, was even a little more flattering. She watched herself in the mirror, and it was like a picture from her dream, with an obvious exception. She ran her hands over the fabric, feeling the smooth lines beneath her fingertips. But her right hand brushed over something, a tag of some sort. Whatever it was was hidden in the folds of the skirt, but Caroline managed to untangle it. It was a note of some kind, pinned onto the dress. She was careful not to pull too hard as she removed it, moving the note into the light so she could read it properly.

"Richard, now we're even, M." Caroline read out. She could see Annie tense up from her reflection in the mirror. "Annie, what is this? Why was this on the dress?"

"Let me see that," Annie said, snatching it from her hand. "Oh, this? This is nothing."

"Give that back! Why did it have Richard's name on it?"

"Why did what have Richard's name on it? I don't remember anything having his name. You must have misread it."

"Annie," Caroline said. She could tell Annie was lying.

"Alright, I promised not to tell. If anyone asks, you beat it out of me," Annie replied. And then she launched into the story of what really happened in the last week. She described the call she had received from Richard, explaining what had happened during the fire and begging for her help. She told Caroline about the hours Richard had spent screaming at caterers and florists through the phone. Richard had gone to the people who had reserved this church and paid them to change their wedding date. He had cajoled the Monsignor into coming back from his retirement as a favor to the bride. He had smoothed over the dispute between the members of the reception band. He had begged, badgered, and bribed all her wedding guests until every single one of them had bought their ticket back to Peshtigo. He'd spent the last day repainting the exterior of the reception hall in order to secure a reservation. And finally, he had gotten the dress. He had given exact specifications to an old friend of his from art school who had somehow ended up a fashion designer. What exactly he had on her that was so terrible she had been forced to work several days straight to complete the dress, Annie didn't know. He had even found a way to get two tickets to Hawaii. "I didn't know he had it in him," Annie said. They were sitting now, and Annie was hoarse from telling the story. "I never liked the guy, but even I've gotta admit, he really came through. Inside that pale, whiny know-it-all beats the heart of a real romantic."

"I can't believe he did all of this," Caroline said, in disbelief.

"He loves you, Caroline," Annie replied. "But you've got another guy who loves you too. So you'd better be sure you're making the right choice before you go out there."

"Are you saying I should run out on my wedding day and find Richard?"

"Hey, he did a nice thing, but I still don't like the guy. But if you love him, then I'll support you. Plus, I'm pretty sure all you have to do to get him back here is draw a pentagram on the floor and give a small blood sacrifice."

Before Caroline could respond, there was a soft knock on the door. Her father peaked his head in.

"Ready to go?" he asked, looking nervous. "Or, you know, there's a fire exit right behind you, if you wanted to leave. I already prepared a little speech for the guests."

"No, Dad," Caroline said. In the dress, it was difficult to maneuver, so Annie had to help her to her feet. "I think I'm ready." Annie gave her a questioning glance, and Caroline nodded. She was ready. She was making the right choice. She was choosing Randy, her perfect match.

For the last few months, she had imagined her new life with Randy. She saw Thanksgiving dinner with her parents, and Christmas with his. She saw three kids: two girls and a boy. The boy would be named Randy Jr., and he'd love football, just like his dad. The girls would take after Caroline. Maybe one would be interested in science, and would become a doctor like her father. They'd all attend the Peshtigo Fall Festival and the 4th of July Parade down Main St. Maybe now she had nothing in common with her old high school friends, but once she was a mother and wife all of that would change. They could talk about the PTA and soccer practice and Tuesday book club. This was going to be her new life. Morose, selfish Richard had no place in her plans. He was gone, and now it was time for her to move on.

"Are you alright? You're shaking," her father whispered. They were standing at the beginning of the aisle. Annie was walking forward. Caroline's turn was coming up. As Annie reached the altar and moved to the side, Randy came into view. He seemed happy, truly happy, for the first time in weeks. He gave her a big, toothy smile, and his eyes danced with excitement.

"I'm fine," Caroline whispered back, trying to draw strength from Randy's reassuring gaze. Her musical cue came. She and her father began to walk forward. Suddenly, a thought struck her: what if he was here? Annie had said he meant to leave before the wedding, but he might have lied. Richard lied sometimes. Actually, Richard lied all the time, to suit his needs. Before she could stop herself, her eyes had flickered to the balcony. But he wasn't there, unless he was hiding behind one of those pillars. She was so distracted she nearly tripped over her dress, and only her father's arm kept her upright. Concerned looks were exchanged throughout the room. Finally, she reached the altar. Randy took her hand, still smiling. However, up close it didn't seem reassuring, or ever particularly happy. Actually, up close it looked strained, maybe even pained. It was like his face was frozen into a smile, like a horrible wax doll. She almost couldn't watch him. Her eyes wandered away, back up to the balcony... maybe he was really well hidden? Or he was in a different balcony? Could he have gotten some disguise and hidden in the crowd of guests?

"You're looking for him." Caroline jumped. Admittedly, she had become distracted. She knew the Monsignor was talking, but it sounded like a hum in the background. But the voice that had spoken wasn't the Monsignor. It was Randy. That horrible, forced smile was gone now, replaced by a hardened, ugly look that she had become familiar with. It was the look he reserved for those moments when he talked about Richard or even when he was simply thinking about him. And now he was looking at her with that same look.

"No I wasn't," she lied. Whispers were flying through the audience.

"Yes you were. We're getting married, and you're thinking about him. You might as well admit it, Caroline."

"Randy, maybe we shouldn't talk about this here," she said, her eyes on all her guests. All these people, who had put their lives on hold to come here a second time, were watching her marriage disintegrate before it could even begin. They didn't need to see this.

"Why not? Everyone knows, Caroline. They've known since you fainted at our first wedding. I've just been too stupid to see it. I've been blind. I mean, come on! You spent three years pining for the guy, and you almost married him! I must be damn stupid not to know that you're still in love with him."

"I love you-"

"No," he said, holding up a shaking finger to silence her. "Don't do that. Don't lie. I do love you, Caroline. I think I've loved you since high school. But you don't love me. And you know what? I deserve better." She opened her mouth to protest. To scream that he was wrong, that she didn't love Richard, that she loved Randy and no one else and that this was their wedding. But no words came out. He turned away from her, and without saying anything else, he marched back up the aisle. He pushed open the doors of the church and left, out into the cold air and the free-falling snow.

She didn't faint, but her knees went weak, and she collapsed onto the altar. She probably would have fallen onto the Monsignor's feet if Annie hadn't caught her.

"It'll be alright," Annie was saying, rubbing her back. Caroline's parents were also nearby, leaning down towards her. For a long time, she couldn't figure out what to do. Her guests seemed to feel the same, because they were all frozen in their seats, staring at what was possibly the worst wedding of all time unfolding before them, a mere week after a close second worst had happened at this very church with the same couple. "We'll fix this. You'll track him down, and you'll find a way to win him back." Caroline turned to Annie. There was not a hint of sadness in Caroline's face. Instead, there was determination. She said only one thing:

"I need to see Richard."


	16. Chapter 16: Richard and Caroline

Richard was counting numbers in his head. Amount paid to guests to fly back to Peshtigo for the wedding. Amount paid to the couple who had the church reserved. One wedding dress, on express delivery. Two tickets to Hawaii. One ticket from Wisconsin to New York. The other expenses had been paid by Caroline's parents, but even then, he would have to start selling his clothes in order to pay his rent. He cursed his superior apartment and its exorbitant New York City rent. Stephano was insisting on wailing, causing all the first class passengers to give them dirty looks (he had gotten the last seat on the plane, another horribly expensive purchase he was regretting). However, he had been desperate to leave. He couldn't stay there one more day. He could already see himself lurking around the dark corners of that church, watching the wedding he had spent so much time arranging. He felt as if his soul was being crushed. That is, more than usual. He was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he barely heard the flight attendant talking to him.

"Sir? Sir? Can you hear me?"

"What?"

"I asked if you'd like anything."

"Unless you have five thousand dollars and a morphine drip hidden back there, I don't think you can do anything for me." Her face soured.

"I'll come back."

"You do that." It felt good to dim that overly sunny smile. Even if he wasn't, at that very moment, missing Caroline's wedding, he would have been in a bad mood. He couldn't help but think that Caroline's father had been intentionally trying to cause Richard to miss his flight. He kept stalling when they were at the house, because he needed a jacket, then he wanted to get Richard a coat, then Mrs. Duffy insisted on putting a hideous knit hat on Stephano's head. Then the car wouldn't start. Then Mr. Duffy had driven a full fifteen miles below the speed limit. Then he had driven past the airport three times. All the while, he had asked if Richard was sure. Did he really want to go back to New York? Didn't he want to see just a few minutes of the wedding? Shouldn't Richard tell Caroline about all the things he had done for her? And Richard had kept repeating himself. I want to go back. I don't want to see the wedding. Don't tell Caroline. Don't ever tell her. She already made her choice, why make her feel guilty on top of that? Old Richard would have let her feel guilty, but the new Richard, the one that loved Caroline, accepted that Caroline deserved to be happy after all that he had put her through.

Richard had missed his flight by a full half hour by the time he walked into the terminal. He had been put on the next available flight, only two hours later. Just in time for him to be in the air for the entire ceremony. Now he was finally in his seat on the plane, staring out the window at the quickly falling snow. They needed to take off soon. If they didn't, the flight would be delayed and he would be stuck here. Worst case scenario, he would still be here when Caroline and Randy left for Hawaii.

An image flashed through his mind. He was with Caroline. It was their honeymoon, but they weren't on some sandy beach. They were in a cafe on a street in Paris. Her dream was France. It always had been. He would have taken her to Paris.

He shook his head. He couldn't think of that right now. He had to fill his mind with something else. He started counting again. Cost of the plane ticket to New York...

There seemed to be a commotion up in the front of the flight. At least, for once, he wasn't the one having a fight with a flight attendant. He found that flight attendants, waiters, and health professionals hated him more than most people (and most people hated him as a general rule). But something was odd about the fight. That voice...

"Just one minute! Please! I just need a second!"

"Miss, without a ticket, I can't let you go further. We're boarding right now... how did you get this far?"

"The man behind the desk said I could have a minute, I just need to talk to my friend. Please! He's right there!" Richard felt frozen. It must be a woman just like her. It must be a woman with her same voice. If he looked up, and it wasn't her, he would never recover. He could never get over it if he looked up, and-

"Richard! Tell her that you know me! Richard!" And finally, he saw her. He realized why whispers were now running through the cabin. She was standing there, clad in a huge white wedding dress, the very wedding dress that Richard had received in an express delivery package not twenty-four hours ago. Involuntarily, he got to his feet.

"What are you doing here?" he asked numbly. He edged past the middle-aged business man he had been sitting next to, who grumbled angrily as Richard stomped on his feet to get into the aisle. Richard was totally dumbstruck. His mind was a complete blank. She should have been at the wedding right now. It was probably about time for the 'I do's.

"I needed to see you," she said, walking forward. "Did you really arrange my wedding? Annie told me-"

"I knew it. I knew she couldn't be trusted," Richard muttered. "I told her to keep her mouth shut-"

"Richard, you really planned my wedding? You really did all of that?" Richard finally realized what was happening. He was angry with Annie, and he was thinking about that as he stood in front of Caroline, who, at this exact moment, should have been getting married. She was standing on his flight. In a wedding dress. Looking at him, and not Randy.

"Of course I did," he managed to say. "I want you to be happy, even if you couldn't be with me."

"I don't know what to do with you!" Caroline said, throwing her hands up in exasperation. "Sometimes you are so difficult! You came all the way here, but you don't tell me how you feel about me! Do you love me, or do you just want to get over me! I never know what you're thinking."

"I love you." Her eyes grew wide.

"You do?" she asked. He couldn't believe she was in doubt. He thought that, at the very least, was extremely obvious.

"I spent the last week planning your wedding to another man, Caroline. And I had to do it from that hole you call your hometown. If I didn't love you, I could have found an easier way to make myself miserable."

"You never needed to try very hard to do that," Caroline replied, with a little smile.

"This is who I am, Caroline," Richard said. He really wasn't at his best. Even though Caroline's mother had washed his clothes, they were still dingy from continual use over the past two weeks. He hadn't slept properly since he had arrived, and had big purple circles under his eyes. Meanwhile, Stephano was balanced in his arms. He couldn't decide whether that added points in his favor or not. "I'm not the easiest person to be with. I don't like people, and it's been made abundantly clear that the feeling is mutual." Several people in the seats around them were nodding in agreement. "I don't want to live in Wisconsin with five kids and a dog. You already have Randy for that."

"No," she said. He felt as if his heart had stopped. "Randy left."

"He did what?"

"He left, and I don't blame him. I've been unfair to him. I was supposed to marry him today, and all I could think about was you." This was a dream. Richard couldn't possibly believe this was anything but a dream. But it wasn't ending, like dreams were supposed to.

"So what do we do now?"

"We'll figure it out." She said it as she stepped closer to him. He was finding it difficult to think properly, with her so close. And that look in her eye, it was just for him. And there were no questions about how she felt. She felt the same way he felt. But that part of himself that he could never quite shut off, the part that constantly tried to make his life as unhappy and unfulfilling as possible, was acting up like it always did.

"We already tried that," he said, but his words didn't seem to be deterring her. Now she was so close, the only place he could look was into her big, beautiful eyes. She would be even closer if he wasn't holding his baby.

"All I know is, I keep coming back to you," Caroline said. "With Del, with Trevor, and with Randy. I keep coming back to you."

"So what do we do?" He asked again.

"You kiss her!" he turned and saw that the words had come from a little old lady who had been sitting in the seat behind him. In fact, every single person on the plane was openly staring at them. Usually a situation like this would have made him feel awkward. He might have snapped at them to mind their own business. But he had to admit: the little old lady had a fair point. So he did.

It was light, barely more then a peck. He couldn't do more than that with a baby between them. But it was more than simply a kiss. Maybe he hadn't realized how incomplete he felt without her. He kept his eyes closed just afterward, his hand on her cheek, because he worried that if he opened his eyes she would disappear and it would all be some elaborate dream. But when he finally willed his eyes open, she was still there, smiling. And she whispered words he thought he would never hear again:

"I love you, Richard."

And he kissed her again. For a moment in time, it didn't matter that, any second now, she would be kicked off the plane by the flight attendants. It didn't matter that she still lived in Peshtigo and he in New York, or that he had a child with another woman. Because at the end of the day, they kept ending up in exactly the same place. She was optimistic, naive, and kind. He was morose but fiercely intelligent. And on paper they shouldn't have worked, but now that they had found each other, there couldn't be anyone else. Later, they would have to work out the fine details. Later, they would have to redefine their relationship. But right then, in that moment, none of that mattered. All that mattered was that they were together.

In Richard's arms, Stephano gurgled happily.


	17. Author's Note

I'm going to say right off the bat that there's going to be a sequel. But that's not why there's an author's note here (not completely, anyway).

I've been working on this story for a while now, and I wanted to take a moment to talk about some of the choices I made while writing it. If you don't care, feel free to drop out now.

It goes without saying that I love "Caroline in the City." I think that's fairly obvious. I've always believed that writing fan fiction is a labor of love. You don't spend hours mulling over what a character would and wouldn't say, how they would feel, how they would react to a certain situation, if you don't love them. And I absolutely love this show. I would have to, to write a fan fiction about the characters nearly fifteen years after the show went off air.

Every fan of the show knows that "Caroline in the City" ended with a hell of a cliffhanger. When I first watched it, I was horrified. Now we would never know if they were going to end up together! But I think the beauty of a cliffhanger is, you're allowed to imagine whatever ending you'd like. So I began to wonder: what would happen next? Would Caroline run off with Richard? Or would she wave up at him in the balcony at her wedding, share a look with him, and turn back to Randy? I hated Randy an awful lot when I watched the show (even now its difficult for me to re-watch episodes in which he's featured). But even though I hated him, I had to admit that there was more to Caroline and Randy's relationship than a simple rebound. She had feelings for him even before she and Richard broke up. So I tried to find scenarios where they would break up in a way that made sense for the show and for the characters.

Caroline was never totally in touch with her real feelings. I think a lot of the show's original plot came from that premise. Going all the way back to the first season, its clear that she and Richard were starting to develop feelings for each other, but she can't see it until just before she marries Del. Later, she agrees to move in with Trevor even though he, and everyone else on the planet, knows that she's in love with Richard. I could easily imagine her being swept up in Randy, who she was attracted to and may have even loved (somewhat). I actually drew a lot of parallels between Randy and Trevor. In ways, they both represented what she wanted from Richard and couldn't have. With Trevor, she got a man who wanted her and was unattached and loved her even though she clearly loved someone else. With Randy, she got her ideal future with a man who wanted all the same things that she wanted. But of course, the old saying goes: you can't choose who you fall in love with.

I couldn't imagine Caroline running off with Richard right at the wedding. It seemed too quick and easy. Caroline isn't someone who runs out on her commitments. In season 3, it was Trevor who left her, and not the other way around. So I wanted to draw out the realization a bit. And in the end, like with Trevor, it was Randy who saw the truth before Caroline could. That's why I wrote some of the chapters from his perspective. I also wanted to undercut any idea that they might belong together (whoever might have had this silly, silly idea). I wanted to really delve into the disintegration of their relationship. I didn't want Randy to be 'the perfect guy'. I wanted him to be a human being. I wanted him to be someone who gets jealous and angry and upset. I couldn't imagine anyone just stepping aside and allowing some other guy to take his girl. And even the most avid fan of the show must admit that, in ways, Randy was better for Caroline. Richard IS a difficult person. There's no way around that. That was one of the biggest themes of the show, and certainly in stories involving their feelings for each other.

Though I will say, Richard wasn't the only one who was difficult. Despite what many may think, the break-up wasn't entirely his fault. Neither was willing to compromise what they wanted. Though ultimately it was the change in Richard that made their reunion possible, he was entitled to his original feelings. Not everyone is destined for parenthood, and I think the show dealt with that issue well (even though he changed his mind, in the end).

So I tried to think of a way to bridge the gap between Richard and Caroline. And that's why I decided that Caroline's strip would be in trouble. In the show, we see her strip as an extension of herself. The farther away from her reality it becomes, the more she struggles with it (as we learned in the episode with her 2000th strip). And in this case, I decided that Richard's presence, or lack thereof, would have a profound effect on it. He was, after all, inextricably linked with her strip for years. So without him, and while simultaneously denying the part of herself that loved him, the strip suffered. And when he came to help her fix it, it began to heal the rift between them. Plus, the show is named after that strip, so I thought it deserved an important place at the center of their story.

I had a lot of fun writing this story. I tried to include as many references to the original material as I could without just rehashing old history. I also included some new "flashbacks." Mostly, I did that because it let me write about times when Richard and Caroline were in a relationship, and since in the story they were all angsty and apart, writing about them being happy and in love with a nice change for me. I think in the sequel I'll get to do a bit more of that (though, you know, smooth sailing isn't really in the cards for them! How boring would that be?). I tried to keep all the facts matching those from the original, but my story ending up being a little longer than I had originally planned, so there's a very good chance I've confused some of the details. If anyone catches one, let me know and I'll change it.

I also wanted to write a bit about Annie and Del. I love them together. It was a nice end-of-the-show surprise. I would have written more about them, but disentangling the mess that was Caroline and Richard ended up monopolizing my time in this first part, so I sent Annie, Del, and Charlie away for a little while so I could deal with the main relationship first. Though Annie/Richard banter may have been my favorite thing to write. OK, no, Caroline/Richard was my favorite thing to write, but Annie/Richard was a close second.

Even though I'm prattling on like this, I don't take this TOO seriously. But I know the people who read my story are fans of the show as well, and so I can't help but want to share my process and how it relates to the love I have of the show.

Originally, I was planning on continuing the sequel as part of this story, but I decided to cut it into its own part. I thought this part had its own story arc, and adding a second arc would only convolute the overall story. But there were a few things I wanted to write in more detail. Caroline and Richard figuring out the "finer details" of their relationship. Annie and Del and their issues. Richard adapting to his life as a father. Richard being self-sufficient and moderately successful for the first time in his life (and he didn't even have to die prematurely!). So I'll puzzle that out in the sequel. Meanwhile, I've just finished writing the last part, and since the rest of the story has been somewhat long-winded (maybe that's an understatement?), the last part is short and sweet. I hope you all find it as satisfying to read as I did to write. I'll admit, it's extremely corny. Dramatic on-plane reunion? How more sitcom could it get? Not very, I imagine, but it was a sitcom, after all, so I decided to just go with it. Also, in a pre-9/11 world Caroline was able to get on a plane without a ticket or a strip-search. It's good to recall the good old days.

And, as a last and final note (I swear!), I wanted to thank all the lovely people who commented on my story. It was great to know that there were people out there reading and enjoying what I was writing. It made me excited to write another part of the story. I hope you'll all join me in the sequel, and thanks again for the encouragement and support you've given me up until now.

Much love to all,

charming2492


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